Shipment of large objects, like oilfield equipment. No new airframe can do this:
Posted on 02/02/2018 6:14:29 AM PST by WeWaWes
I tried to post an article from a source not allowed at FR, but search for other sources to this story.
UPS is purchasing 14 Boeing 747's to add to its fleet. A big deal.
This keeps the 747 in production past 2020.....a f-ing big deal!!
UPS placed the order in 2016 - 14 747-8 freighters with an option for 14 more. They just exercised the option.
Ditto!
Ping.
Gee, they coulda had all United’s old 2 pilot 747-400s. United and Boeing cut a deal that when their new -787s were delivered, they’d all go to the boneyard.
My wife got a chunk of fuselage (2”x3” size) of the first one she ever flew as a Christmas gift. Guess all the rest of the ‘lunium is beer cans by now.
Fourteen ordered in 2016, fourteen more now, along with four new 767s just ordered.
Buying new vs end of life (United)
Fourteen ordered in 2016, fourteen more now, along with four new 767s just ordered.
There is a story in there about how everyone (except Joe Sutter) thought the 747 would be a double-deck aircraft (it was what Juan Tripp, head of Pan Am wanted, and everyone thought it was the only way to do it) but Joe Sutter came up with the wide body approach, and sold his company on it, but they had to convince Juan Tripp since he was their biggest and most important customer.
From GoodReads:
...Every aspect of the plane’s design was the subject of intense discussion within an extensive community of people representing different interests, objectives and opinions.No doubt one of the most heated debates concerned the basic shape of the fuselage.
The general belief, one shared by many of Sutter’s personnel as well as by PanAm CEO Juan Trippe, was that the design process would inevitably produce a double-decker craft: a tall, narrow airplane with two floors. This was mainly due to cues taken from ship design and the general idea that the passenger airplane was a flying ocean liner. Words like ‘crew’, ‘captain’ and ‘purser’ still bear witness to this association.(Photo courtesy of the Boeing Company)Giant passenger ships are made larger by adding decks, and indeed this was the idea that Sutter started with, but as he continued to draft and design this model it began to present problems.
In freight applications, for example, the height of the fuselage would make it difficult to load and unload containers. In passenger applications, the height of the upper cabin would make completing an emergency evacuation within the required 90 seconds dangerous, if not impossible. Searching for alternatives, Sutter and his payload engineer Milton Heinemann started to think along ‘heretical lines’ as they put it, developing the idea of a wider, double-aisle fuselage. They started to explore this novel concept and discovered that although it might be somewhat heavier, the spacious cabin would be much more comfortable for passengers. And loading freight into such a wide body would be much easier. The cockpit would sit above the front loading door in the nose, trailed by a fairing, a curved surface to reduce drag, creating a modest extra deck and the 747’s characteristic bulge.The design process included the construction of a gigantic new production facility, the Boeing Everett Factory, to this day by far the largest building in the world.
The engineers realized that they would have to work hard to convince double-decker believers to accept this radical departure from the traditional approach, and that it was possible that after the first rumors of the wide-body solution started to circulate, Sutter could suddenly find himself replaced by someone willing to pursue the double-decker concept. Fortunately, by that time he had gained sufficient authority to weather that conflict.With Boeing finally more or less behind him, the next, even more crucial, step was to gain the support of Juan Trippe. A meeting in New York with Pan Am representatives was arranged for this purpose, and Heinemann, more diplomatic and less explosive than Sutter, was chosen to present the new concept. Heinemann went about it cleverly, reserving a conference room 6m (19.7 ft) wide, exactly the width of the proposed cabin design, so that the executives present could experience it directly. He let the space speak for itself, and it was a convincing argument..."
When Heinemann told Tripp it was not going to be a double-deck plane, Tripp started to sputter about passengers being cramped, etc., and Heinemann said something like "Would you approve if it was as wide as this conference room?" and when Tripp said it couldn't be done that wide, Heinemann told him they had a mock up that was as wide as the room...
That’s it! I can’t take it anymore!
No more WINNING!
I’m tired of all the WINNING!
Trump warned us this would happen!
In short, United Parcel Service is buying 12 747-8F freighters. In fact, watch for the possibility that FedEx may do the same very soon.
“This keeps the 747 in production past 2020.....a f-ing big deal!!”
What niche is the 747 still able to fill? Seems like with all of the newer planes in production, one of them would render the 747 obsolete.
Gross takeoff weight: 800,000 lbs.- That’s a lot of packages!
Fastest take off ever with a B757. Love this video.Beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVeC5bVBcic
I’m still good... ;^)
Shipment of large objects, like oilfield equipment. No new airframe can do this:
“Shipment of large objects, like oilfield equipment. No new airframe can do this”
I’m surprised that a significant amount of heavy or bulky oilfield equipment would need to be shipped by air. Why the big hurry?
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