Free Republic

Jeff Coxey heard the roar of jet engines overhead. Not unusual when you work in the flight path of Boeing Field. But moments later, Coxey, warehouse manager for Econobox in Renton, heard another loud but unfamiliar crashing noise. He went to a second-floor window and saw a long hose -- he estimated the length at 200 feet -- draped over two 40-foot-tall trees, coiled on the ground and lying across the roof and hood of his Toyota Land Cruiser. SNIP He rushed outside in time to see the unmistakable ugly green airplane in the distance. It was Boeing's Large Cargo...

It's big, it's ugly and it nearly took out a small plane that got too close. The Boeing Co.'s Large Cargo Freighter, a modified 747 that will be used to ferry sections of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, left a wake vortex so powerful that it apparently sent the small plane plunging toward the earth as it prepared to land at Boeing Field. The single-engine Cessna was being flown by a student pilot, but an instructor took over and regained control, avoiding a crash. By then, however, the Cessna was below the level of the booms of the cranes that are used...

TAIPEI, Sept. 09, 2006 -- The Boeing [NYSE: BA] 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter took to the skies for the first time at 10:38 a.m. (UTC/GMT +8 hours) today, initiating the flight test program that will culminate in U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification. The two-hour, four-minute flight was the first of 250 expected flight test hours for the unique freighter, a specially modified 747-400 that will transport major composite structures of the all-new 787 Dreamliner. The enormous jet -- with its enlarged upper fuselage that can accommodate three times the cargo by volume of a standard 747-400 freighter -- gracefully...

The first of the superfreighters that will ferry pieces of the 787 across the globe is now nearing completion in Taiwan. These previously unpublished company photos convey the magnitude of the modification work involved in transforming the used 747s into oversized delivery vehicles. Evergreen Aviation Technologies is modifying the planes in a 3-acre maintenance hangar at Taipei's Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport. .......... That spurred Adam Pilarski, an analyst with Avitas, to quip that Boeing's new superfreighter fleet is "designed in Russia and built in China."

SEATTLE, Feb. 22, 2005 -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] today said development of the 747 Large Cargo Freighter is proceeding according to plan and the modified freighters will be ready to support final assembly of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliners in 2007. "We have a top-notch team of engineers working to design what will be one of the most unique airplanes flying," said 787 Vice President of Manufacturing and Quality Scott Strode. "This kind of modification is an engineer's dream. It's an extremely challenging project, and it's essential to the success of the Dreamliner." Boeing announced last week the critical "swing...