Boeing 747-400SF Scheduled for September First Flight
Boeing has inducted the first 747-400SF Special Freighter into the modification line at Taikoo Aircraft Engineering (TAECO), located in Xiamen, China. The 747-400SF — a freighter produced by modifying 747-400 passenger or Combi aircraft — should make its first flight in September and will be delivered to launch customer Cathay Pacific Airways around the end of the year, on the schedule announced at the program’s launch in January 2004.
New orders for three conversions from Air France have lifted the order book to 33 sales, plus 29 options, and Boeing is accelerating production almost three times faster than expected, according to program director Marco Cavazzoni. Modification work will be performed at maintenance and repair organizations (MROs) rather than by Boeing, and lines are expected to be added in Singapore and Korea, starting early next year.
The 747-400SF modification is more intensive than the 1980s’ 747-200SF program, says Cavazzoni. The difference is due in part to new “changed product” rules adopted by airworthiness authorities, he says. “It’s like renovating a house,” he says. “Anything that you change is reviewed relative to the latest code.”
One example: the freighter has a new smoke detection system. When the 747-400 was designed, the Federal Aviation Administration would approve a system that declared a warning within five minutes of the first smoke appearing in the cargo hold. The standard is now one minute, and that requires a completely different smoke detection system. The aircraft also has to meet current standards for fuel tank explosion prevention and decompression safety.
To meet the challenge — at the same time as work started on the 787 — Boeing has assembled a round-the-clock engineering team. A small team in Everett manages the program and its integration with the 747 group. A group in Long Beach (there are those who will always maintain that Douglas understood cargo aircraft better than Boeing) is responsible for the design of the conversion hardware, including the cargo floor and the reinforced floor beams. Mitsubishi provides the side cargo door. Boeing’s Moscow Design Center provides design support on time-critical tasks during night-time hours on the U.S. West Coast, and the flight-test program is to be conducted in Hong Kong with the aid of TAECO’s sister company, HAECO.
Apart from a handful of early aircraft, any 747-400 can be converted to the 747-400SF, says Cavazzoni. The company sees a total market in the next 20 years for 1,800 large freighters, some 900 of which are likely to be conversions. — Bill Sweetman
