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Airbus floats concept for A380 freighter conversion
Passenger aircraft are sometimes converted to all-cargo mode after more than 20 years of service, but the A380 is already being retired after just a dozen years or so. Is there a way to keep them flying as cargo planes? Airbus is trying to find out if customers are interested. (www.freightwaves.com) 기타...
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An A380 may someday carry light freight, but it can never carry heavy cargo. . . . the problem being severe floor load restrictions. Incredibly, the A-380's integrated floor beam anchor points were never designed with heavy floor loads in mind. Increasing such would almost require rebuilding from scratch and that ain't going to happen.
Not all cargo is heavy. I'd say most will probably work just fine.
Except that one of the big jobs freighter conversion companies do is beef up the floor. Bigger problem is how do you efficiently load the main deck?
i suppose that if Airbus had constructed and designed the 380 for cargo conversion, the operators now stuck with an unusable passenger airliner would like to alter the big bird to carry cargo. BUT, since airbus did not design for cargo conversion, the question is entirely moot. Fedex and UPS did option the 380 years ago but declined the options when the plane was revealed inadequate for the task.
From what I understand it wasn't the design, but rather the delays, that caused Fedex and UPS to cancel their orders. The passenger version was delayed and engineers from the A380F program were moved to the passenger program, which would have resulted in even further delays for the freight version – and the cargo carriers didn't want to wait any longer.
Airbus claimed the A380F would haul 150 tons 5500 miles. Then that drastically dropped to 110 using only 70% capacity. That and the fuel costs is what killed the A380F.
