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Comment by jessedhillon | Hacker News Reader

Here's the listing

http://www.controller.com/listingsdetail/aircraft-for-sale/B...

$1.5M is a lot lower than I would have guessed, unless this is like everything else in the Bay Area and the listing price is the floor and not the ceiling.

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According to the owners manual for the 747, the most likely answer is that it requires a "D check", which is the 4th major maintenance check on the aircraft and will likely need major repairs. Also there is a modification called the "section 41" mod which is required of this aircraft, but most likely hasn't been done either. They estimate it at 7.5M to do both, and that was in 2005.

Throw in the fact that this thing isn't really that useful to an airline and you can see why the market value is so low.

Also, the manual states:

"Values of most 747-200s have now fallen to scrap level. That is, the intrinsic value of an aircraft is directly related the market value of its engines and any salvage value that can be derived from its rotables"

Which leads me to my last point - this aircraft might not have engines. Usually power plants are listed.

This is even better than my reply, bravo.

Anyone want to spend 1.5M on a ridiculous base for a house?

Maybe because it has 46000+ hours on it? thats almost 3.5 hours a day, every day. Also, owning a plane like that comes with some ridiculous expenses - you gotta park it somewhere, you have to maintain mechanical on it (annuals), and you have to pay for fuel. The cost of the plane probably pales in comparison to the cost of owning that plane.

46k hours and 8k cycles is not that old for a 747 - there are ones with 100k+ hours still flying.

There is an oversupply of 747s, though not this specific model; my understanding is Boeing hasn't really bothered with true production once the factory became backfilled with them, and that a 747 can be had disproportionately cheaply. Not $1.5M cheap though, not at all...

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