The evening of Friday, April 20th it is the moment for the second season visit to a plane on Malpensa apron. As usual more than 50 "Clipperers" after meeting on arrival level inside Terminal 1, are ready for boarding.
There was to be the long awaited visit of the Alitalia aircraft MD11 but a change in scheduling forced the Flag Company to study other possibilities. Not all hope was lost however:in fact, even though we didn’t expect it, we were shown the Avro (BaE) RJ-70, the small 4 jets friendly know as "Jumbolino"
After years of waiting this appointment, with the
small but well equipped 70-seat plane, was really waited on.
It is the shortest version of the english-built four reactors, optimised to carry around
70 pax on short to medium hauls.
The plane is made to cover mid-sized distances and to work well in "difficult" airports like Firenze Perentola, Lugano Agno and London City Airport.
The "Jumbolino",registred EI-CPL and still owned by Azzurra air, will now be flying for Alitalia Express.
The plane is waiting for us on "Foxtrot" ramp, far from the terminal area, close to the buildings of the new Crago City. This apron, waiting for the Catgo B.747's, it is now used for Gruppo ALITALIA's Commuter and it is usually full of BaE 146s, EMB-145s, ATR-42s and -72s, Do.328s).
Boarding is at 20,45.
Internal configuration is on 14 rows (3+3) and the seats are very confortable in black leather.
The cockpit, for 2 pilots, show a mix of traditional instruments and four new generation multifunctional displays
Technical facts |
|
| AVRO RJ-70 (Bae 146-100) EI-CPL "Veneto" | |
| c/n E1267 | |
| 4
engnes Avco Lycoming LF 507-1F, 27.3 kN thrust each. |
|
| First flight | 08/03/1985 |
| Delivered to Azzurra Air | 31/01/1998 |
| Lenght | 26.19 m |
| Height | 8.61 m |
| Wing Span | 26.34 m |
| Wing area | 77.30 mq |
| Max take-off weight | 44000 Kg |
| Payload max. | 11000 Kg |
| Pax | 36 + 28 |
| Range | 2700 Km |
| Cruise speed | 890 Km/h (372 nodi) |
Internal seats plan
(Azzurra Air)
After more than one hour of visit ant technical description of the plane, it time to deplane from this smal but interesting airliner.
Our night visit in going to finish, just the time for a welcome tour around the main apron, excellent chance to have a look to the dozens of aircrafts parked in front of Terminal 1.
Clipper would like to thank Azzurra and Alitalia for their collaboration, in particular Mr. Roberto Scaburri for all his help.