Boeing has released the
first engineering drawings for its new 747-8 airplane, launched in
November 2005 by Cargolux Airlines and Nippon Cargo Airlines.
The two drawings released were for the body landing gear and the
underwing engine fittings.
"It is really exciting to see the new 747-8 Intercontinental and
Freighter family of airplanes become a reality with these first
drawing releases," said Corky Townsend, chief project engineer,
747-8 Program.
"The design of the airplane continues on schedule to allow us to
deliver the first 747-8 in late 2009," Townsend added. "We believe
the new 747 is the right size for the large airplane market and the
shape of the future."
The first drawing defines the body landing gear outer cylinder
sufficiently to allow the supplier, Goodrich Corp. at a site in
Cleveland, to begin developing the forging block that will be used
to make the part.
The 747-8 will require two of the cylinders, one on each side of
the airplane. Similar work will follow on the outer cylinder for
the wing landing gear. The 747-8 will have a nose landing gear and
four main landing gear - two body landing gear and two wing landing
gear.
The second release - the engineering advanced materials release
- is for fittings that will be used to hang the engine on the
underside of the wing. Four fittings are required for each of the
four GEnx-2B67 engines on the 747-8, for a total of 16 per
airplane. The fittings are made of titanium.
The release authorizes the Hong Yuan Aviation Forging &
Casting Industry Co. in Sanyuan, China, to begin working with
Boeing Global Partners to order titanium material to allow
production of these parts. The supplier of the parts will be
Precision Machine Works in Tacoma, Wash.
The 747-8 is a family of passenger and freighter airplanes that
serves the market for airplanes of 400 seats and larger. The 747-8
Intercontinental passenger airplane seats 450 passengers in a
typical three-class configuration and offers the lowest seat-mile
cost of any passenger airplane. It provides operators an 8,000-nmi
range, 21 percent greater cargo volume and 9 percent lower
seat-mile costs compared with the 747-400. The 747-8 Freighter will
fly 4,475 nmi with a maximum structural payload capacity of 154
tons.
It offers 16 percent more revenue cargo volume than the 747-400F
with slightly greater range. The 747-8 Freighter upholds its
predecessor's efficiency, with equivalent trip costs and 15 percent
lower ton-mile costs than the 747-400F. The 747-8 Freighter will
reportedly enjoy the lowest ton-mile costs of any freighter. The
first 747-8 Freighter will be delivered to launch customer Cargolux
in September 2009.