‘Unusual’ 747 is nearly ready
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, August 17, 2006
The first of three modified 747 jetliners, specially designed to haul huge parts of the Boeing Co.’s new 787 Dreamliner to Everett, is just about ready to fly.
The 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter has rolled out of the hangar at Taipei’s Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport in Taiwan.
After initial flight testing there, the flying freighter will come to Seattle and Everett in the coming weeks for further testing.
“This is one of the most unusual modifications Boeing has ever done,” Scott Strode, 787 vice president of Airplane Development and Production, said in an announcement of the first freighter’s completion. “We’ve relied on the world’s best talent to design and build the LCF, and we can all be proud today to see it standing on the tarmac.”
The plane was modified by Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corp., a joint team of Taiwan’s EVA Air, General Electric and a part of Taiwan’s Evergreen Group. The second freighter will be completed this fall, with the third coming next year.
If all goes according to plan, the first two freighters will enter service next year. They’ll be used to fly parts of the 787 from Japan, Italy and South Carolina to the final assembly plant in Everett.
The modified 747’s rear fuselage swings open, allowing more cargo space than any other aircraft, according to Boeing. It can hold three times the volume handled by the existing 747-400 freighter, thanks to a cargo deck that bulges up behind the cockpit.
The new 747 freighters are critical to Boeing’s plan to reduce the cost of building the 787. The company says flying the large airplane parts, instead of transporting them by sea, will save 20 percent to 40 percent on shipping costs and will cut delivery times from a month to one day.
