Invest in 747?

Continue to learn and challenge yourself and your brain will continue to grow. Learning over time enhances memory and the survival of new brain cells. - Anonymous

Even the aviation industry is not being spared!

Airlines have announced plans to take 1,700 planes out of service as fewer people fly. United Airlines is retiring all 94 of its Boeing 737s by year end and Northwest Airlines has cut its old DC-9 fleet by about a third.

According to aerospace data firm Ascend Worldwide, the number of planes in storage has jumped 29 percent to 2,302. That includes 930 parked by U.S. operators alone.

Eventually, some will be sold, scrapped and some remain at desert facilities in southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico. One of them, Evergreen Maintenance Center scraps roughly 15 planes a year.

The deserts in the U.S. Southwest have become one of the top destinations for airliner storage because of the perfect combination of cheap land as far as the eye can see and a dry climate that preserves the planes. Planes deteriorate quickly in high humidity.

An airliner that has been stripped of valuable parts like the cockpit, the landing gear, and the doors can still yield as much as 80,000 pounds (36,300 kilograms) of aluminum.

Those that are still airworthy will be maintained to attract the potential buyers. (Similar to second hand car garage?) Storing a 747 with the required maintenance checks costs $60,000 a year!

Too much cash to burn, how about getting a 747? - now everyone can fly!