Posted on 04/15/2006 12:54:35 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
The first of the superfreighters that will ferry pieces of the 787 across the globe is now nearing completion in Taiwan.
These previously unpublished company photos convey the magnitude of the modification work involved in transforming the used 747s into oversized delivery vehicles.
Evergreen Aviation Technologies is modifying the planes in a 3-acre maintenance hangar at Taipei's Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport.
..........
That spurred Adam Pilarski, an analyst with Avitas, to quip that Boeing's new superfreighter fleet is "designed in Russia and built in China."
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
A bulging upper skin is added to the forward fuselage last month, creating
a heavy brow on the superfreighter, which will ferry pieces of the 787
across the globe. Boeing has commissioned three of the superfreighters.
In November the top of the 747 fuselage was stripped off and the tail
removed so that it resembled a flatbed truck.
If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail.
Finally, a place to store all that stuff in the basement.
Boeing Vista Cruiser?
lol
It needs that weird little window in the hump there.
Taiwan is a very pro-American country. A relative lives there, and for years has said how much they love the US, and Americans.
How many ILLEGAL aliens could you deport in a couple of those? ;^)
U will notice that this plane is being built outside of the USA. The entire project has been OUTSOURCED!.
It's probably limited by weight rather than volume. You could pack them in like sardines till the weight limit is reached. Of course they wouldn't look too good when they arrive. The cargo section isn't pressurized.
Of course I noticed. The auto excerpt feature of Free Republic's thread posting web page only posts text from the beginning of a story. I manually excerpted it and put the last paragraph at the end.
Ok - I'm still looking for the drawback...
"Taiwan is a very pro-American country. A relative lives there, and for years has said how much they love the US, and Americans."
My son taught high school there and he backs you up on that. I hope we don't let China take those people into Communist slavery.
Interesting. Looks like Taiwan is doing the mod work. Not a very lucrative venture maybe. There's just so much lobbying against outsourcing that can be done.
I think Boeing is trying to get out of being a parts manufacturer and more into "large scale system integration".
from the full article:
"Evergreen, the builder of the aircraft, is a joint venture of EVA Air and General Electric and part of Taiwan's Evergreen Group."
Evergreen is a Taiwaneese company. It is the largest international sea shipping company. So using airplanes is a natural extension.
Another way to get small valuable goods from over there, to over here.
The largest EXPORTs from the US today are EMPTY ship cargo containers, and scrap steel.
Note they started with a USED Boeing plane (perhaps just short of scrap aluminum?).
Not that old. They start with 747-400's that are just about to need D-checks and would be in need of interior refurbishment. I think one of the China Airlines 747-400's being used struck it's tail during a landing. The fact that the cargo section will not be pressurized makes it an ideal candidate to be converted.
It is the oldest of the classic 747-100/200/300 aircraft that are best suited for conversion to beer cans. The 747-400 has a two-man digital cockpit which is being heavily upgraded for the 747-400LCF's. The 747 being a long ranged aircraft, has fewer cycles than shorter ranged aircraft like 737's with equivalent numbers of hours. It's much cheaper for Boeing to acquire used 747's than to build new ones for conversion to the LCF.
It's not just the technology: Boeing has outsourced significant work (dollars) in markets where they think they have a good shot at picking up a large number of orders (Japan, China, etc.).
It's not just the technology: Boeing has outsourced significant work (dollars) in markets where they think they have a good shot at picking up a large number of orders (Japan, China, etc.).
Also, the economies of scale in the commercial aircraft industry are so huge that there really isn't much room for more than two competitors to manufacture wide bodied jets. If Boeing built their aircraft soley with US suppliers, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot, because Airbus would use that fact to market their planes around the world.
< ];^)
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