Happy 30th anniversary,Lufthansa D-AIPB

[Lufthansa061]

D-AIPB, an Airbus A320-200, celebrated its 30th anniversary on October 20, 2019. In 2019 alone it already made 1227 flights. There are quit a number of A320s that will celebrate their 30th anniversary in the near future:

D-AIPB A320-211 70 20.10.1989
D-AIPC A320-211 71 21.11.1989
D-AIPD A320-211 72 24.11.1989
D-AIPE A320-211 78 15.12.1989
D-AIPF A320-211 83 10.01.1990
D-AIPH A320-211 86 26.01.1990
D-AIPK A320-211 93 08.02.1990
D-AIPL A320-211 94 20.02.1990
D-AIPM A320-211 104 29.03.1990
D-AIPP A320-211 110 10.08.1990 
D-AIPR A320-211 111 30.08.1990
D-AIPS A320-211 116 13.09.1990
D-AIPT A320-211 117 25.09.1990

The introduction of the A320 meant the end of the Boeing 727. Only 3 years later the 727 was phased out and many Captains then retired early instead of changing over to the A320 as they did not trust this new technology. Here is a picture of the Captain covering Engine#1 of " Kilo Tango" after it’s last flight:

That these old captain’s opinion was not as wrong as many thought of tragically proved to be true when Lufthansa flight 2904,our A320 “Kulmbach”, overran the runway and crashed in Warsaw in 1993.

But here we want to celebrate the birthday of “Papa Bravo” and I wish you always happy landings, little “ATARI Bomber” ;)

[JulianB]

That is a very cool anniversary, thanks for sharing!

“ATARI Bomber” ;)

I would love to hear the story behind this!

[BennyBoy]

Happy 30th Birthday/Future Birthday Lufthansa’s A320 Fleet!

You have so far served Germany well.

[Lufthansa061]

Atari produced some of the worlds first home computers, starting production in 1979. See this Wiki article here :

Atari 8-bit family

When the A320 was introduced to the Lufthansa Fleet in 1989 our Short-and Medium Haul fleet existed of Airbus A300, Boeing 727 and 737. The Fly by wire technology, which was introduced before on the Concorde and Airbus A300-600, sending signals to secondary flight controls, eliminated all of the steel cables in the A320. For the pilots who flew the old Boeing Jets in our fleet that meant that this a full computer controlled aircraft, and as the Atari Home PC was quiet popular at this time the A320 got the nickname “Atari Bomber”

[JulianB]

Well before my time, but now I recall the name! Thanks for sharing the story! Danke!