Boeing 747 LCF

The first of two, or possibly three Boeing 747 LCF freighters took to the air today in Taipei. They are modified 747-400F freighters, with a "swing tail" design that will allow portions of the 787 to be transported. They were designed with help from Rocketdyne, Moscow, and Amsterdam. The actual modification was performed by Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corporation. It incorporated a 5 foot extension to the vertical fin, and a second deck. The entire plane, with the exception of the flight deck will be unpressurized.

With its big graceful lines and distinctive hump, the Boeing 747 long has been one of the world’s most recognizable airplanes. But a modification to the 747-400, currently being developed by a team of Boeing Commercial Airplanes engineers and international engineering design partners, promises to bring even more recognition to the venerable jetliner and the company.

The 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter (LCF)—with a greatly enlarged fuselage, a “swing tail” that opens to accommodate major Boeing 787 Dreamliner sections, and a vertical fin that extends 5 feet (152 centimeters) higher than a typical 747-400—will turn heads when it makes its first scheduled test flight in mid-2006, leading to certification later that year.

“We have a top-notch team of engineers working to design what will be one of the most unusual airplanes flying,” says Scott Strode, 787 vice president of Airplane Production. “This kind of a modification is an engineer’s dream. It’s an extremely challenging project, and it’s essential to the success of the Dreamliner.”

The LCF will have one basic mission when it enters service in early 2007: efficiently ferry large composite 787 sections, including major fuselage sections, wings and the horizontal tail, from supplier factories in Grottaglie, Italy; Charleston, S.C.; Wichita, Kan.; and Nagoya, Japan, to Boeing’s final assembly plant in Everett, Wash.

www.boeing.com...



[edit on 9/9/2006 by Zaphod58]

wow that looks cool Zap it reminds me of another big freight plane a(a russian one i believe)I think it's called the guppy.

I have to be very honest here, and say I dont like it. Not that it matters, but surely those big bulges are going to have some detrimental impact on the aerodynamics, manouverability and speed of the aircraft? It being butt ugly is only a secondary consideration of mine.

Why hasnt anyone bothered to paint it???

Jensy

Originally posted by kuhl
wow that looks cool Zap it reminds me of another big freight plane a(a russian one i believe)I think it's called the guppy.

Airbus built the Guppy which is in use by NASA.

And no one would paint a plane like that because it's a prototype and the paint would weigh it down heavily when they're only doing preliminary testing, they'll probably paint it later on though to get it's full weight down.

Paint on that kind of plane would add hundreds of pounds extra.

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by tronied
I have to be very honest here, and say I dont like it. Not that it matters, but surely those big bulges are going to have some detrimental impact on the aerodynamics, manouverability and speed of the aircraft? It being butt ugly is only a secondary consideration of mine.

Well the only purpose is to carry 787 parts, so as long as it can get them to the production facility that's all that matters.

Originally posted by Jensy
Why hasnt anyone bothered to paint it???

Jensy

Because this was the first flight, it's only ever gonna carry cargo, and there will only be three of them, so painting it isn't really high on the list of things to do right now. They just wanted to make sure it flew right.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
Well the only purpose is to carry 787 parts, so as long as it can get them to the production facility that's all that matters.

Totally true and I know its built purely as a tool to get big objects from A to B, but god its ugly! Its a 747 with an enormous wart!

How much do you think the bulge will shorten range? I think it will quite a considerable amount, maybe about 15%, but I really dont know much about this kind of thing. I guess there arent any figures on it yet.

Shattered, correct me if I am wrong but was'nt the Guppy (and Super Guppy) a modification of the Boeing Stratocruiser aka B29/B50 and the Aibus A/c you are refering to is the Beluga which is used to ferry bits of the smaller Airbus jets from production site to production site.

Airbus used to use the Guppy for ferrying parts but it was getting to old and smallso they designed a jet replacement!

Not having a go just setting the facts straight.....!

SV........Out!

Originally posted by Silentvulcan
and the Aibus A/c you are refering to is the Beluga which is used to ferry bits of the smaller Airbus jets from production site to production site.

i believe the beluga is also used for hauling parts of the A380 as well? hardly one of their smaller jets

Which bit of the 380 would fit? Having worked on the A380 FAL (Final Assembly Line) at Toulouse and having seen allthe various bits being delivered all of the bits arrive at Toulouse by road convoy as the Beluga just ain't big enough....besides that it is too busy(all 5 of them) bringing in parts for the other assy line s at Toulouse.

The wings produced at Broughton go by barge then ship as they are too big too fit in a Beluga....maybe a A380 Beluga would sort that out?

SV...Out!

hmm this claims to be an image of wing and tail sections being loaded at broughton link
i may have been wrong but i was sure i read reports of the beluga carrying parts for it more often though?

Originally posted by gfad
Totally true and I know its built purely as a tool to get big objects from A to B, but god its ugly! Its a 747 with an enormous wart!

How much do you think the bulge will shorten range? I think it will quite a considerable amount, maybe about 15%, but I really dont know much about this kind of thing. I guess there arent any figures on it yet.

I'd say probably 10-15% maybe even more depending on the load it's carrying. I would imagine that they're going to have to stop in Honolulu for fuel coming out of Japan fully loaded.

Interesting, it could have a nicer paint job though.

[edit on 10-9-2006 by Figher Master FIN]

I think I'm going to start a thread all about these sorts of aircraft, will add the link when i'm done.

Jensy

Originally posted by solidshot

Originally posted by Silentvulcan
and the Aibus A/c you are refering to is the Beluga which is used to ferry bits of the smaller Airbus jets from production site to production site.

i believe the beluga is also used for hauling parts of the A380 as well? hardly one of their smaller jets

The Beluga has virtually no role in the production of the A380. The reason is that very few of even single parts (wings, cockpit, tail section etc...) of the A380 would fit inside. Not to forget, there are (initially) quite few A380 to be produced per year, justifying the occasional problematic ground delivery of the parts. One only has to compare te A380 backlog of less than 200 jets with the orders of the A320 (+variants)... and these jets pay the bills.

Nevertheless, Airbus might soon start working on a much larger Beluga based on the A340.