For planes that are being retired, they usually take the engines off pretty early because they have some of the most valuable parts for resale in them.
They’d also be drained of all fluids. For planes in storage to be used again later, they fill all the fuel, hydraulic, etc. lines with special liquids to keep them preserved. So it’d be at least a week’s work for a team to get a stored plane going.
The Airlander 10 wrote off their old prototype, and has a maximum payload of 10 tonnes, whereas an unloaded 747 is about 180 tonnes. Remember it's a plane so big that they used to piggyback the space shuttle orbiters (which are not small) on it.
I believe just like storing a car for a long time, fluids are drained and other items removed/wrapped for storage. You can't just jump in the cockpit and taxi out to the runway. They are kept in a state that is relatively easy to restore to functioning status but not in functioning status.
Good luck taking off without fuel and any ground equipment, not to mention any consumables that would have to be replaced after prolonged stay in a desert.
Looks like they leave fuel in the tank if it’s for short term storage, but they drain various fluids if it’s longer term storage. Probably depends on the circumstances.
Precisely—and this circumstance is retirement with no prospect of a quick sale.
At a guess, they’ll probably have limited parts value, only that which would be valuable to operators of 747 freighters. Mainly the engines, if they’re in good nick.
The authentication method is knowing how to fly said plane and getting in said plane in the first place.
The planes that are relatively accessible aren't flightworthy without effort, and the planes that are flightworthy require violating federal law (in the US) to access them.
>and the planes that are flightworthy require violating federal law (in the US) to access them.
That doesn't really answer the question though. Breaking into a house also violates laws, yet it happens all the time. If you've made it onto an airport tarmac, can you just steal a plane?
It's logistically very difficult. Getting fuel into it usually takes a special truck, so you'd need access to that (when a plane is parked overnight it would have a little bit of fuel in it, but not enough to get very far after taking off). Even getting into the plane is difficult - you'd need a stair truck, and somebody to move the stairs out of the way when you're in. If it's parked somewhere where you can't just taxi out, you need somebody in a tug to do a pushback.
So assuming you're that far in, and you know how to start it up, you don't have a flight plan logged, so the tower isn't going to give you clearance to take off. If you take off without permission, they're going to call the air force, so you'd better be in a country that doesn't have a very big air force or a nearby base, and you probably want to choose somewhere where you can get into another country's airspace who isn't friendly with the country you stole the plane from...
They’d also be drained of all fluids. For planes in storage to be used again later, they fill all the fuel, hydraulic, etc. lines with special liquids to keep them preserved. So it’d be at least a week’s work for a team to get a stored plane going.