747-8 First Flight

Hi Bob - keep us posted if you hear anything...

Jedi

 

This a public access website.
http://www.boeing.com/newairplane/
Lots of stuff to look at, 737, 747-8 and 787.

 

When is the passenger version coming out?

 

Q4, 2011 - Lufthansa will get the first aircraft.

 

Last I knew a couple have already been sold for VIP conversion.

Jeff

 

Reportedly, the next Air Force 1's will be 747-8 versions.

 

Absolutely no chance that they will let an Airbus win the selection process. Since both AF1 are already 747-200s going to the -8 is logical.

A while back a public announcement was made about starting the process for doing the replacement AF1 then it suddenly went very quiet. AF1 is extremely political and trying to openly move forward with the process and getting congressional funding approval at this point in time would not play well as a public story. It will happen at some point but I would expect there will need to be a better economic environment and a better approval rating for POTUS.

The new presidential helicopter program has already been killed although some more funding got thrown at it by congress.

Jeff

 

They have - but they're based on the passenger, not the freighter, and LF is getting the initial deliveries.

 

Airbus would have to compete, and they've already said that they wouldn't enter that competition, not enough sales potential to warrant the hassles involved.

 

I really want to see how the procurement process makes the justification for Boeing as the only choice/entry. Maybe Airbus will agree to make a quick response they know is going to lose if only so there is some sort of alleged competition.

When there was a competition for the current 747 the other entrant was the MD-11. Told that the Air Force kept rewriting the performance specs until only the 747 could win. The Air Force had wanted the 747 as far back as when Reagan took office but knew they had to wait until Sen. Proxmire retired. As soon as he did, bingo, appropriations started going through for the new aircraft.

Jeff

 

Doubtful - there's less protectionism going on now than back in the early days. Case in point, the tanker project. Airbus won it, everyone threw a fit. Yes, there were irregularities, but that doesn't mean that they can't and won't win again.

 

Boeing wouldn't have won with the 777 when the original RFP went out. They have nothing to demonstrate it as a tanker, whereas the 767 was already built for both Japan and Italy and flying (in test form) as a tanker. Same with the A330, they are building it and have a test platform for it for a number of countries. This is a separate discussion we could debate till we're blue in the face.

We could argue that the 787 and A350 might be the better platforms, but given that a tanker would be so far down the road, neither would have a chance.

And right now the 747-8 will not sew up the freighter business any time soon - there's a glut of 747s (both -400 Freighters as well as -400 passenger aircraft that can be converted into freighters) sitting in the desert. It's one reason Gugenheim Aviation cancelled their 747-8F order, because it was cheaper to buy the 747-400F sitting in the desert.

All freighter companies are hurting, and some of the biggest movers of air freight are grounding their aircraft (747-400F/BCF).

Time will tell.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVoh4RYybGE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht0coXgQUqA

 

Thanks. So majestic.

What is tethered to the top of the vertical stablizer? Some kind of sensor? What does it measure?

 

Nothing like a screaming Boeing 707 taking off with the use of water injection.

Except of course, a B-47 with Jato bottles !

 

Did you notice the two 787's parked in the for ground about half-way thru the video?

 

Interesting that Boeing's chase plane is a Lockheed product designed some 65 years ago.....

 

I mentioned that on the Dreamliner thread.

Was told that Boeing acquired it when they picked up Lockheed Martin. Slow and reliable.

 

?

Lockheed-Martin is still a separate company, and in no way owned by Boeing.