Quote (card_sultan @ May 11 2017 11:39am)
however there's only one plane that does this special route and it only flies three days a week
This is an extraordinary claim with no foundation, especially considering there is publicly available information that there are multiple different 747-400 aircraft that have flown this route, and the flights between cities fly daily. Also, flights leaving Perth on the other side of the continent can be observed on radar flying the same path to/from JNB. You can go on flightradar24.com right now and track SA281 westbound from Perth (but not for much longer, it's going to leave radar range for about 6-8 hours). I remember watching the eastbound flight last night, flight SA280.
Quote (card_sultan @ May 11 2017 11:39am)
every ball earth troller talks about it and claims they have been on it,
You can't name a single person here who has claimed to have been on that route.
Quote (card_sultan @ May 11 2017 11:39am)
whether it even the route exists all the time is very suspicious at best, not many people would fly that route so the idea they need a single plane to make this fantastic route when the market demand is so low, it points to its existence being for another purpose, to keep up the myth, aka plausible deniability.
Suspicious? Suspicious to you because it flies directly in the face of your worldview maybe. Just because YOU can't think of why people would want to fly that route doesn't mean other people can't. You are arguing from incredulity again. I can think of a great reason why people would want to fly between the cities: where would you rather take a vacation? Somewhere in Africa or somewhere in Australia? I bet lots of people want to leave Africa for a vacation in Australia. And if you think this is about plausible deniability, I'll be happy to run some numbers between a different pair of southern hemisphere cities and we can come to the same conclusion. Which cities would you like me to compare?
Quote (card_sultan @ May 11 2017 11:39am)
That the plane may be modified with using stronger grade titanium seems very likely, most of these "normal" planes are made with fiberglass and aluminum and are rather flimsy to any stress. To modify a single plane or a few seems very probable.
Titanium is heavier than aluminum on a volume basis, but even if it weren't, shaving a few thousand pounds from the airframe doesn't make up for having to carry that much more fuel. This magical plane you're trying to concoct has to get off the ground. The current maximum takeoff weight of a 747 is something like 885,000 pounds. You think adding 400,000+ pounds is a simple venture?