Boeing 747s Are Back From the Dead

Long live the Queen of the Skies!!

This is stating to sound like the DC-3. A good plane with a strong need.

Both Kalitta and Atlas have been adding 747-400's to their fleet. Most of them are coming from Asian operators such as Korean and Eva Air.

I've worked on many of these birds.It's nice to see they might be making a bit of a comeback. There were several brand new 747-8s sitting in the desert in Marana last time I was there. Those flew from Everett, straight to the boneyard, and were supposedly slated to become VIP aircraft for some middle eastern customers.

I always liked seeing the nose loaders coming in for maintenance.

Worked cargo for a while on the NWA 747 fleet. At the time 14 birds in the cargo config. 200,000lbs of stuff is a lot. Asparagus to Ferrari's they hauled it all. Could unload one in 45 minutes at LAX.....kinda fun

Recently, last week BA has been using 747's on the Austin-London flight instead of
the 787's it initially used. Thought the 747's stopped flying passengers???

On the flightpath in Austin.

Great news!

No matter where oil goes. At $400M list for new and $3M for a D-check- that pays for a helluva lot of petro gang. Last time I checked, new machines require fuel.

In addition, the payload is so high the 74 will stay around like the DC-3 did.

The "most-fun airplane" I ever flew.

Great picture of the B747-400 - brings back memories of many flights on B747's; like flying into Moscow in 1990 on a Pan Am B747-100; I worked for P&W at the time and when the pilots found out I got to sit in the jump seat in the cockpit! My most memorable experience was sitting in the right co-pilot's seat of a NorthWest B747-400 as it was being taxied across Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport to the maintenance hangar for me to do an inspection on the engines. Great airplane - I'm very sorry that they aren't used much now in commercial service.

Can someone explain how it is that B744s (& MD11s, even DC10s) are still economical for freight, but not for pax?

for those who thought 747 were becoming scarce for passengers, kindly look at the flights between heathrow and JFK, and notice the 747 shuttle. Yes, there is the odd 777 segment, but 747 is the dominant machine here.

Another great article...
https://airlinerwatch.com/discarded-superjumbos-of-boeing-to-take-off-again/

The 747 was one of the most beautifuly built and most powerful planes built for its time in history.

The report of my death was an exaggeration.
Mark Twain, May 1897

yep a good old plane 747-400 series block.

Liz Beth

All but the newest equippped are outclassed by the new generation of boeing and airbus planes many in a poor state due to operators not investing pending fleet upgrades.bloomberg are stating the obvious there are more passengers than airline seats due to the cyclicual nature of the business.A short term fix whilst waiting for new aircraft deliveries.