747 Lives on

[PaulGR 168]

UPS confirmed not long ago that they are getting additional 14 747-8F giving the queen another few years of life.
Now I wonder if global cargo transport growth and sending the 8F into a backlog since they only build a few per year will make other potential customers interested in securing few more frames in near future.

I don't know how much can B ramp up production but do you guys think we might see some more airlines ordering them?
My fav cargo bird so this news made me happy :)

[Wise87 1,275]

Twin engine and better fuel economy is the future. Don’t see the 747-8 or the A380 lasting much longer when you have the 777x, 787-10 and A350-1000 coming out soon.  

[PaulGR 168]

3 minutes ago, Wise87 said:

Twin engine and better fuel economy is the future. Don’t see the 747-8 or the A380 lasting much longer when you have the 777x, 787-10 and A350-1000 coming out soon.  

But there's nothing that matches 8F for cargo volume.
While passenger version is dead cargo should (I hope) do just fine in current global situation.

[Wise87 1,275]

My reference was leaning more to the passenger side of the house. As far as cargo goes, I don’t see too many 747-8 orders by cargo carriers. Many already have or orders placed already. Can’t see enough new orders to keep production going too much longer. Boeing got lucky when UPS came out with the last minute -8 order for for the initial 10 and than another 14 for a total of 24. 

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/boeing-to-keep-747-8-production-steady-for-ups-order-445447/

[thibodba57 462]

34 minutes ago, Wise87 said:

My reference was leaning more to the passenger side of the house. As far as cargo goes, I don’t see too many 747-8 orders by cargo carriers. Many already have or orders placed already. Can’t see enough new orders to keep production going too much longer. Boeing got lucky when UPS came out with the last minute -8 order for for the initial 10 and than another 14 for a total of 24. 

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/boeing-to-keep-747-8-production-steady-for-ups-order-445447/

Couple things.  The -8 is actually has the best fuel economy of cargo aircraft believe it or not and nothing comes close to the volume it hauls.  The second is there is so much going on in the the cargo industry to say anything is definite. Especially shutting down a production line.  We don't even know what Amazon's end goal is with Prime Air.  They could quite easily purchase Atlas and need to double their 74 fleet and replace all the 400s.  

But make no mistake, the 400s need to be replaced eventually and the airlines are probably holding out orders as long as possible to milk as much as they can and to get deeper discounts as Boeing gets as desperate as Airbus is with the A380.

[birdguy 3,943]

But there's nothing that matches 8F for cargo volume.

Our local airport (Roswell NM KROW) is a grave yard for cycled out airliners.  Lots of 747s out there.

One company at our airport scraps those airliners.  They take out everything worth selling and then scrap the rest.

Several years ago I went there with the manager of our Little Theater group.  He was a looking for airliner seats for the theater.

The proprietor took us out to one of the B747s that had the inside gutted out.  We climbed into the bird via a ladder in the nose wheel well.

If you think it looks big on the outside take a look inside one that has had everything stripped out.  Like going down into Carlsbad Caverns.

 Noel