Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
LMP737 wrote:Story time. Back in the mid 2000's in an effort to save on fuel American Airlines decided to put low drag tail cones on all their MD-80's. The fleet at the time was a combo of the original DC-9 style and beaver tail style tail cones.
AA contacted Boeing about purchasing the newer style. Boeing quoted the cost at $278,000 per unit. Obviously there was a bit of sticker shock. Unfortunately at the time there were only two available on the surplus market. So AA decided to make their own under PMA at their TUL base. Cost for American was $38,000 per tail cone with and an annual fuel savings of $28,000. So in little over a years time, each tail cone paid for itself.