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Boeing's Largest Aircraft 747-8 Freighter Takes To The Sky |
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February 9, 2010 -
The Boeing 747-8 Freighter successfully took to the sky for the first
time today before more than 5,000 employees, customers, suppliers and
community leaders. The flight begins a test program for the world's most
efficient freighter. "It was a real privilege to be at the controls of this great airplane on its first flight, representing the thousands of folks who made today possible," said Feuerstein. "The airplane performed as expected and handled just like a 747-400."
Today's flight was
the first of more than 1,600 flight hours in the test program for the
newest member of the Boeing freighter family. The airplane followed a
route over |
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Powered by four General Electric GEnx-2B engines, the 747-8 Freighter
will transition its testing program to Moses Lake, Wash., and
"This truly is a great day for The Boeing Company and the 747 program,"
said Mo Yahyavi, 747 program general manager and vice president, Boeing
Commercial Airplanes. "It's the culmination of the hard work and
dedication of our employees, suppliers and customers. While there is
still much to do, I am excited to begin the flight-test program, which
will demonstrate the capabilities of this airplane." The 747-8 Freighter is the new, high-capacity 747 that will give cargo operators the lowest operating costs and best economics of any freighter. The airplane is 250 feet, 2 inches (76.3 m) long, which is 18 feet, 4 inches (5.6 m) longer than the 747-400 Freighter. The stretch provides customers with 16 percent more revenue cargo volume compared with its predecessor. That translates to an additional four main-deck pallets and three lower-hold pallets. |
"The 747-8
Freighter continues the leadership of the 747 Freighter families, which
carries more than half of the world's air freight, making it the
standard of the air cargo industry," Yahyavi said. Boeing launched the
airplane on November 14, 2005, with firm orders for 18 Boeing 747-8
Freighters: 10 from Cargolux of Luxembourg and eight from Nippon Cargo
Airlines of Japan. All told, Boeing has secured 108 orders for the
747-8, of which 76 are orders for the new freighter. Cargolux, Nippon
Cargo Airlines, AirBridgeCargo Airlines, Atlas Air, Cathay Pacific,
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, Emirates SkyCargo, Guggenheim and Korean Air
all have ordered the 747-8 Freighter. |
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