When joy riding is more important than getting to the destination
When joy riding is more important than getting to the destination
Ultimately the "why" of film comes down to liking the journey more than the destination. Ever since the 100-year old Kodak motto, "You press the button, we do the rest", picture taking has been headed for the nirvana of digital photography: "You press the button and there is nothing left to do". For those of us for whom the method of photography is as important as the final result, film will continue to be important.
There was an interesting article in the WSJ yesterday about Lufthansa refurbishing old airliners and selling tickets to joy riders who relish the old-fashioned experience of flying in a vintage aircraft. Except for those who prefer the look of film over digital, and really I think that is a small and shrinking number, especially since there are fewer and fewer who have even seen film(!), the main reason for shooting film is relishing the experience of using the medium and the fine "old-fashioned" products that made it possible. There's nothing wrong with that, as Lufthansa has learned. It is also interesting to note that the article refers to the German mastery of mechanical engineering as being a core competence that Lufthansa can draw on in refurbishing these vintage planes.
Lufthansa's Labor of Love:
Restoring Some Really Old Junkers
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif]Antique Aircraft Are a Company Sideline;
A Salvage Mission to Auburn, Maine[/FONT]
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[FONT=times new roman,times,serif]By DANIEL MICHAELS
June 16, 2008; Page A1[/FONT]
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HAMBURG, Germany -- After inspecting the latest addition to Lufthansa's fleet, veteran airplane mechanic Jürgen Rohwer braced himself for hard work ahead.
"This is the most complicated aircraft we could get," said the silver-haired 67-year-old engineer, studying pictures of cockpit controls and wiring at the headquarters of
Deutsche Lufthansa AG's maintenance unit here.
WSJ's Dan Michaels reports how German carrier Lufthansa refurbished a 1936 Junkers 52 propeller plane and then sold thousands of tickets to people wanting an old-fashioned joyride. But Mr. Rohwer isn't working on a cutting-edge Airbus or Boeing jetliner. The task at hand demands far more ingenuity: resurrecting a grounded Eisenhower-era Lockheed propeller plane.
Lufthansa flies some of the world's newest jetliners. But it also has a unique sideline rebuilding and flying antique aircraft. Enthusiasts wait months and pay €259 ($400) for a bumpy hourlong ride on a 1936 Junkers-52 propeller plane that Lufthansa bought in 1986. The 16-seat Ju-52 is so delicate that engineers rebuild it each winter to ensure safety.
Work is starting now on the Lockheed 1649A Super Constellation "Starliner," which Mr. Rohwer's bosses bought at a bankruptcy auction in Maine last December. They hope to start flying it in 2010.
Once, many carriers maintained their antiques to show off, but years of financial pressure have put an end to most of that. Today, it's mainly consumer companies like Swiss watchmaker Breitling SA and Austrian energy-drink maker Red Bull GmbH that pay to recondition aviation relics as flying billboards.
Lufthansa, whose jetliner operations are profitable, can afford its costly projects partly because active and retired employees volunteer to reconstruct, maintain and fly the old planes. In a country that produces some of the world's finest cars, sleekest home appliances and most-precise industrial tools, mechanical savviness is a badge of honor.
Capt. Georg Spieth, 51, is one of 20 top Lufthansa pilots who fly the Ju-52 in their spare time. "We're quite lucky to do this," he said before taking it up recently. "There's a really long list of captains waiting to fly it."
Capt. Spieth's wife, Ingrid, volunteers as the plane's flight attendant.
Maintenance Crew
Mr. Rohwer, whose two sons are Lufthansa mechanics, was selected from dozens of volunteers to help resuscitate the Starliner. In addition to decades of work modernizing jetliner cockpits for Lufthansa, the old-timer has a special qualification: He served on crews maintaining Lufthansa's Starliners in the 1960s.
Lufthansa The standard Starliner carried 86 passengers, but a swankier version could carry just 30 high-flyers in supreme luxury. Back then, Lufthansa marketed the Starliner as its "Super Star." A Starliner flew the longest-duration scheduled flight ever, a 23-hour-19-minute trip from London to San Francisco -- a hop jetliners now cover in less than half the time.
Lufthansa's standard Starliner flew 86 passengers, but a swankier version carried 30 highfliers in luxury. Some slept in beds, behind curtains. Newfangled in-flight entertainment included tape players and loudspeakers.
Onboard Chef
An onboard chef, squeezed into a small kitchen, whipped up meals to suit passengers' whims. German delicacies served included potato pancakes, "a dish highly appreciated and frequently requested by passengers," according to Lufthansa's corporate history.
The Starliner, introduced in 1956, was the last of many Constellation versions Lockheed built over 16 years. Each had increasingly elaborate equipment such as autopilot systems, hydraulic pumps and windscreen defrosters.
The complicated four-engine Starliner had lots of problems, Mr. Rohwer recalls. The plane's massive 3,000-horsepower engines -- designed for optimal performance high in the sky -- overheated regularly on the ground. The plane's violent vibration snapped wires. Spark plugs crusted over. Starliners frequently returned to the airfield shortly after takeoff because of technical difficulties. None of the planes ever crashed.
"We had lots of trouble with that aircraft," recalled Mr. Rohwer, who joined Lufthansa in 1957 at age 16 and retired from the airline's maintenance arm, Lufthansa Technik, two years ago.
ON THE JOB
Engineering Veteran Plays Key Role
"Some people say this was the best three-engine plane ever, because one engine was always out," chuckled Mr. Rohwer.
Starliners last flew in the 1970s, but the iconic plane continued attracting fans. In the 1980s, Maurice Roundy, a 63-year-old pilot, aircraft mechanic and airfield manager in Auburn, Maine, bought three Starliners for their scrap value. He started rebuilding them, but after spending $500,000 of his own money on the effort, he ran out of cash and last year filed for bankruptcy-court protection.
"I think the airplanes owned me," said Mr. Roundy, who paid his debts by getting rid of the planes.
Headed to Auction
When Lufthansa Technik Chief Executive August Henningsen heard that three Starliners would go under the gavel, he jumped into action. After inspecting the planes last November in Maine and Florida, Mr. Henningsen sent his deputies to the auction in December. Slowed by a Maine snowstorm, they arrived just in time to land the three planes for a bid of $745,000.50.
Lufthansa now plans to fully restore one Starliner in Auburn, using parts cannibalized from the other two.
To prepare, Mr. Rohwer spent two weeks in January in Auburn and at the offices of
Lockheed Martin Corp. in Texas. Lockheed archivists found 11,000 boxes of the plane's engineering drawings, certification documents and maintenance records that Mr. Rohwer and his colleagues will use for their work.
Mr. Rohwer, a private pilot who builds model steam trains for fun, will handle the Starliner's cockpit. To get the plane certified by air-safety regulators in the U.S. and Europe, Lufthansa will install modern flight controls, as it has done on the Junkers.
New Control Panel
For safety's sake, Mr. Rohwer must include similar consoles, dials and switches as a giant Boeing 747 has on its flight deck. To cram them into the Starliner's far smaller space, Mr. Rohwer says he will use a handful of digital screens that can replicate dozens of different control panels.
Since the Starliner sits an ocean away in Maine, Mr. Rohwer's team will first install equipment in a cockpit mock-up in Hamburg. Then they'll ship that to Maine and rewire it directly to cables and hydraulic pumps that other engineers are refurbishing.
While the cockpit will glow with modern electronics, the passenger cabin will evoke a bygone era. Walls will be covered in beige leather. The large round windows will have fabric curtains.
"The cabin will look like the 1950s -- but with seat belts," promises Bernhard Conrad, who is running the project and also is chairman of the Lufthansa nonprofit foundation that owns the old planes.
Mr. Rohwer says he isn't interested in flying on the Starliner. He'd rather just hear the engines' low rumble as the plane cruises slowly by.
"The most unusual thing is the sound," recalls the mechanic. "It's much more interesting than being onboard."
