Aerospace and defense giant Boeing Co. (BA) announced that the 747-8 Freighter, the largest commercial jet ever built by the company, successfully completed its first flight on Monday. The first flight was a year later than originally planned by the company.
With 747 Chief Pilot Mark Feuerstein and Capt. Tom Imrich in the flight deck, the huge plane took off after a weather delay at 12:39 p.m. local time from Paine Field in Everett, and landed at Paine Field at 4:18 p.m. The flight came just one day shy of the 41st anniversary of the first flight ever taken by the company's original 747 aircraft.
Monday's flight also marks the beginning of more than 1,600 flight hours in the test program for the newest member of the Boeing freighter family, in order to receive certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. On Saturday, Boeing said it had completed taxi tests on the aircraft.
The airplane followed a route over Western Washington, where it underwent tests for basic handling qualities and engine performance. The airplane reached a cruising altitude of 17,000 feet and a speed of up to 230 knots, or about 264 miles per hour.
Feuerstein said, "It was a real privilege to be at the controls of this great airplane on its first flight, representing the thousands of folks who made today possible. The airplane performed as expected and handled just like a 747-400."
Like Boeing's other new commercial jet, the 787 Dreamliner, the 747 aircraft is running well behind schedule, with deliveries slated to begin sometime in fourth quarter of 2010, more than a year late. Boeing has struggled as it developed both aircraft.
The 787 Dreamliner is more than two years behind schedule. The aircraft was originally scheduled to enter service in May 2008, but production had been delayed multiple times. The aircraft's maiden flight, originally planned for September 2007, took place on December 15, 2009. Total firm orders for the 787 at the end of the recent fourth quarter were 851 airplanes from 56 customers.
Meanwhile, the first delivery of the 747-8 freighter was to have been in late 2009 and the first passenger version in late 2010, but the company pushed back the dates due to changes in design, limited engineering resources. An eight-week strike at its factories also contributed to the delay.
The 747, with its humped upper deck, has been in the air since 1969 and is Boeing's most recognizable plane. When Boeing began considering another update of the 747, which first began service 40 years ago, it considered building a big new version in order to compete directly against the A380 double-decker plane built by the Airbus unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., or EADS.
Airbus had planned a freighter version of the A380, but the program was put on hold three years back. The A380 airliner made its first flight in April 2005 and went into service in October 2007.
The newest 747 model, 250 feet long, is about eighteen feet longer than the existing 747-400 Freighter and provides customers with 16% more revenue cargo volume compared with the predecessor. It features a new wing design, and will have the same new cockpit and engines being used on the Dreamliner.
Powered by four General Electric GEnx-2B engines, the 747-8 Freighter will transition its testing program to Moses Lake, Washington, and Palmdale, California, where the other two test airplanes will join it in the coming month.
Mo Yahyavi, 747 program general manager and vice president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said, "This truly is a great day for The Boeing Company and the 747 program. Its the culmination of the hard work and dedication of our employees, suppliers and customers. While there is still much to do, I am excited to begin the flight-test program, which will demonstrate the capabilities of this airplane."
Boeing launched the airplane on November 14, 2005, with firm orders for 18 747-8 Freighters - ten from Cargolux Airlines International SA of Luxembourg and eight from Nippon Cargo Airlines of Japan. The company currently has 108 orders for the 747-8, of which 76 are orders for the freighter version. A passenger version, which can carry up to 467 people in three classes, will begin deliveries at the end of next year.
Cargolux is slated to be first customer for the plane's cargo version, while German airliner Deutsche Lufthansa AG is expected to take delivery of the first passenger 747-8 in late 2011.
However, the 747-8 program already has been a drain on Boeing's balance sheet. Early last year, the company said the program was unprofitable, and in October 2009 the company took a $1 billion write-down because of delays in producing the new freighter.
BA closed Monday's regular trading session at $57.89, down $0.51 or 0.87% on a volume of 4.72 million shares.
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