Wake Turbulence: Part 4.1 - Exceptions addenda

In response to the entry wherein I discussed Boeing 757's and their wake turbulence considerations, a sharp-eyed reader noticed that I neglected to mention the aircraft flown by the former Northwest Airlines, now part of Delta. I had mentally already grouped the Northwest B757's with the Delta birds, but we'll take a look at them here. Call it an homage to another departed legacy carrier.

As I mentioned in the entry on Boeing heavy jets, the B757-300 is a heavy jet, no questions asked, all the time. UPDATE: Not any more. Go here. ATA, Continental, and Northwest are the only operators that have regularly brought them into LAX. Coincidentally, all three also operated -200 models. Continental still does, of course, and now also has some of the former ATA B753's.

None of the Northwest B752's were heavy jets (and they still aren't, even in Delta dress)

Here's an interesting pre-dawn shot I took recently, showing a quartet of Delta B757's. What's interesting about it is that while all of the B757's in the shot now fly for Delta, none of them started out that way. The one still wearing Northwest paint is obvious, as is the -300 directly behind it (also ex-NWA: Delta didn't have any B753's prior to the merger). The one in the lower left corner of the shot (at gate 61 - off the left wingtip of the NWA-paint ship), was previously an ATA aircraft, while the middle one on the right with winglets (at gate 54A - off the B753's left wingtip) formerly flew with TWA.

Another Delta former-TWA B752 lifts off from runway 25 right (not a heavy).

Here's an earlier photo of one of Delta's former-ATA B752's (in fact, it's the same ship as the one in the pre-dawn photo. It also appears in the daytime all-in-the-family shot above.) Another curious thing is that some of ATA's B752's were heavies, and in fact that was my first encounter with the "some are, some aren't" dichotomy of the B752. I don't know what happened to those airplanes; if they're among the ones Delta now flies, they're not heavies any more - which is conceivable (or if they are, Delta hasn't mentioned it - and I'm not asking!)

Link to next part: Heavy no more