Boeing Selects EGAT for 747 Large Cargo Freighter Modifications

Boeing.com ^ | Feb. 18, 2005 | Staff

[Paleo Conservative]

Ping!

[RayChuang88]

I think Boeing might sell more of this modified 747 than people think. There is actual demand for very outsized cargo transport that can't be carried even by the Antonov An-124 Ruslan cargo transport, and the Airbus A300B4-600ST Super Transporter has too short a range for transporting oversized cargo in much of the world.

[Paleo Conservative]

I was thinking that myself. This plane will be able to carry cargo larger than the C-5C can carry. It could be very useful for quite a number of aerospace companies. There are no American commercial aircraft that can carry large turbofan jet engines in their cargo bays. Those are high value items that could use such a transport.

[Paleo Conservative]

A300B4-600ST Super Transporter has too short a range for transporting oversized cargo in much of the world.

Those were built to just carry oversized cargo to and from destinations in Europe. Another advantage for Boeing, is that there are lots of 747-400 airframes with a lot of life left in them that will become available for special freighter conversions in the next few years as 777s take over many of those routes.

[RayChuang88]

Wouldn't it be very ironic that Airbus will need the 747 Large Cargo Freighter to ferry completed Engine Alliance GP7200 engines from the USA to the A380 final assembly line in Toulouse, France?

[COEXERJ145]

Wouldn't it be very ironic that Airbus will need the 747 Large Cargo Freighter to ferry completed Engine Alliance GP7200 engines from the USA to the A380 final assembly line in Toulouse, France?

Airbus first used the "Guppies" (originally designed to transport parts of the Saturn V rocket) to move their parts from the various plants around Europe. All of the Guppies were highly modified Boeing Stratocruisers/C-97's. The joke for years was that every Airbus aircraft began its life in the belly of a Boeing.

[Paleo Conservative]

Here's a related news realease from October 13, 2003.

Boeing 7E7 Will Use Air Transport for Component Delivery

[Larry Lucido]

So, where is the cargo door?

[Paleo Conservative]

But Airbus converted the last three Super Guppies themselves. They had to buy rights to the plans, because the company that designed it had gone out of business. Another irony is that the C-97 and its derivative the KC-97 were the planes replaced by the KC-135 which along with it's sister the 707 made Boeing the dominant designer and manufacturer of jet trasport aircraft.

[Paleo Conservative]

So, where is the cargo door?

I think they open the whole top.

[Larry Lucido]

Hmm, kinda like a big Samsonite suitcase. Do you then have a bunch of folks sit on it while you lock it? :-)

[Paleo Conservative]

Hmm, kinda like a big Samsonite suitcase. Do you then have a bunch of folks sit on it while you lock it? :-)

Probably some of these people.

[Larry Lucido]

Good God, man! It's just a 747 airframe, not a granite mountain. They'll snap that landing gear right off.

[namsman]

The entire fuselage opens aft of the wings. The bulges in the conceptual picture in the first post shows the latch covers. The hinges are on the other side. It's too difficult to make airtight, so only the cockpit will be pressurized.

Namsman sends

[RayChuang88]

Alas, those Super Guppy planes operated by Airbus no longer fly, mostly because of the fact the airplanes have reached the end of their useful airframe lives. That's why Airbus built six A300B4-600ST's to replace them.

However, because the 747 LCF can carry larger loads than even the A300B4-600ST, I wouldn't be surprised that Airbus orders 3-4 of them so they can transport Rolls-Royce Trent engines from the UK and General Electric and Pratt & Whitney engines from the USA, along with parts of various Airbus airliners from Germany and Spain that won't fit in the A300B4-600ST.

[jpsb]

It is kinda sad to watch Airbus replace Boeing as the worlds premiere aircraft builder. isn't there some very nice jet air liners comming from South America too?

[decimon]

So, where is the cargo door?

"The Large Cargo Freighter's unique design will feature an entire aft fuselage that swings open for loading."

FWIW, the 707 and DC8 freighters have large doors on one side of the fuselage to accomodate pallets. The 747 freighter (pictured below) raises the nosecone to admit the pallets. From the description above, this modified 747 might raise the empennage.

[Lazamataz]

Boeing Selects EGAT for 747 Large Cargo Freighter Modifications

Egats!