Test flight of B747-8 planned
Boeing is to start test flights on its latest 747-8 plane, its largest aircraft, Monday, if its taxiing experiments are successful.
If the weather is fine, the maiden flight could take off at 10am from Everett’s Paine Field. After a few days, the test plane will fly to Moses Lake in Eastern Washington where it will be based for about a month until it achieves initial airworthiness. After that, the other two test planes can fly.
The test flight by the venerable 747 comes a day before the 747s complete 41 years of flying. The jumbo had first taken to the sky in 1969.
The new jumbo, whose development was plagued by delays and problems, is 250 long and has a wingspan of 225 feet. The last significant development to Boeing 747 was in 1991 when the company had unveiled 747-400.
Boeing says the new massive freighter has 16 percent more cargo capacity, needs 17 percent less fuel and costs 16 percent less to operate than the 747-400. Its fuselage stretches 18 feet longer and wingspan is 13 feet wider, the company says.
But the Boeing claims are ridiculed by the rival Airbus which described 747-8 as “old technology,” overshadowed by the A380 super jumbo jet that first flew five years ago.
The new plane has a list price of $300 million. But with big discounts usually given on new jets, an airline could likely buy one for almost half that price. There is apparently demand for only 12 passenger versions of the new plane. But the company could potentially sell double that number as a freighter, sources indicated.
However, the company realizes that demand for large commercial jets is shrinking. After two cancellations last month, total orders for B747-8 stand still at just 108. Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney said last month that if Boeing could reach a target of about 350 total sales of the 747-8, “there will be no problem with profitability.”
The first plane is scheduled to be delivered to Luxembourg-based freight carrier Cargolux by year-end.
Dennis O’Donoghue, who heads Boeing’s test operations, said the factory should roll out about three jets every two months this year, and by the time of first delivery he expects to have around 20 jumbo jets fully built or in final assembly.
Boeing launched the freighter program on Nov. 14, 2005, with firm orders for 10 planes from Cargolux and eight from Nippon Cargo Airlines of Japan.
Boeing’s European rival Airbus had planned a freighter version of the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jet. However, that program was put on hold in 2005 after FedEx Corp. and UPS Inc. canceled their orders.
Boeing has to bring out a passenger version of 747-8 later.
