Worth Its Weight - Boeing 747-8 Freighter

March 5th, 2008

As part of the new YouTalk feature on the site, readers are both welcome and encouraged to submit their own articles here for publication. It gives me great pleasure then, to introduce the first of the YouTalk series kindly supplied by my colleague, Chris Cook.

Boeing’s 747-8 Freighter: Worth The Weight For The Pinnacle Of Commercial Air Freight Excellence

Boeing proudly boasts that: “Boeing freighters currently account for more than 90% of the world’s dedicated freighter capacity, with the 747 Freighter Family alone accounting for more than 50% of that capacity.”

Naturally, Boeing is working at full-steam to ensure it retains such as great title with the design and development of the two of the world’s largest, newest and most capable commercial freighters, the Boeing 777F and 747-8 Freighter.

The 747-8 Freighter is Boeing’s answer to the air-freight’s needs for a significantly more capable and fuel-efficient 747-400 Freighter, that offers greater flexibility in terms of range/payload capabilities.

Image courtesy of BoeingCurrently, Boeing displays that the -8F, carrying a revenue payload of 134,173kg at a load density of 158,6kg/cubic meter (9.8Ibs/cubic feet), is capable of flying a range of 4,435nm (8,220km) at Mach 0.845. Whilst the range and load-density of the -8F are the same as the -400F, the payload increase is significant.

Moreover, a very welcomed feature of the -8F is its fuel-efficiency and operating costs. The 747-8F is 16% to 17% more fuel efficient than the -400F, and offers 14,4% to16% lower tonne/mile costs.

These claims were echoed by Cathay Pacific Airways’ CEO, Tony Tyler, when the airline placed firm orders for 10 747-8Fs on November 8^th 2007.

“We are very excited about the 747-8 Freighter, which provides the highest payload of any commercial freighter. More importantly, this is a highly fuel-efficient aircraft which consumes 22% less fuel per revenue payload tonne than a 747-200F, and 12% less than the 747-400F,” he says.

On the practicality side of the -8F, the airplane has no competitors. Whilst the currently shelved Airbus A380 Freighter indeed offers some compelling economics and significant cargo volume, the A380F in reality is quite impractical and clumsy.

Both the 747-8F and 777F have the ability to interline with one another as both are able to accommodate the industry standard 3.1m(10ft) high pallets on the main deck.

The A380F can only accommodate 2,44m (8ft) high pallets on its main deck and only 2.1m (7ft) high pallets on the upper-deck. Airbus argues that the A380F’s massive cargo volume space is an attractive feature of airplane, which offers some 10,000 cubic feet more space than the 747-8F.

However, Boeing is quick to point out that the -8F offers superior load-density capabilities as well as claim that the -8F utilises it’s nearly 30,000 cubic feet of total cargo hold volume more efficiently.

The 747-8F can accommodate a maximum load density of 160.1 kg/cubic meters (10.1Ibs/cubic foot) – the highest in the industry. The A380F is optimised at a load density of 126,6kg/cubic meter.

Airbus argues, however, that the A380F is be able to accommodate higher load densities than 126kg/cubic meter, should it be required, but that would ultimately, and significantly, drive down the amount of pallets it can fly, thus effectively meaning it would fly with volumes of dead, wasted and highly-costly space.

Whilst Airbus also argues that the 10,400km range of the A380F allows for more point-to-point flying and thus avoiding stopovers, Boeing counters that the range of 8,000km is an optimum range for freight operators.

Cargolux, the co-launch customer for the -8F, is just one of the cargo airlines that back up this claim from Boeing. Another major trump card in favour of the -8F is that it has the flexibility and ability to utilise all current ground support infrastructure in place already for the 747 freighters.

Further, the unique nose-loading capability of factory built 747-Freighters allows for a large variety of high-yield, ultra-large components to be loaded. Emirates SkyCargo division, that has 10 747-8Fs on firm order also commented that the advanced 747 is better suited for the airport environment.

“The 747-8F is a lot more flexible as it can be handled at virtually any airport, whereas the A380F’s upper deck loading is a challenge as not many airports will have the equipment to do that loading,” said Ram Menen, the senior vice president of Emirates SkyCargo.

Boeing calculates that the cost of an all-new 26’ high loader at every destination to load the upper deck of the proposed A380F will amount to more than double the costs of a 747 loader at every destination.

Another interesting fact that is sometimes overlooked is that the 747-8F is in fact able to carry more revenue payload than the A380F. Airbus displays the payload capability of the A380F around 150,000kg, but that is inclusive of tare weight. The -8F’s maximum payload including tare-weight is a little over 140,000kgs. The A380F can only carry 129,360kg of revenue payload, or some 4,000kg less than the -8F!

To cap off the long list of superior advantages the 747-8F offers over the A380F, Boeing claims that the -8F will be 25% more fuel efficient than the A380F, all while offering 22% to 24% less tonne/mile costs and 20% to 25% lower trip costs. Boeing, however, concedes, that the -8F will have a 0,7% higher trip cost than the -400F.

Cargolux CEO, Ulrich Ogiermann, recently commented: “They {customers} will want to be sure that if they have to fly goods, they fly them in the most fuel-efficient aircraft, and that aircraft is the 747-8.” Similar comments are echoed by all current and potential future -8F customers as well.

Boeing displays the 747-8F as having slightly more revenue payload than the A380F in this image. Boeing projects via its Current Market Outlook that ‘Very-Large Aircraft’ sector will require about 960 airplanes (747-8 and A380) over the next 20-years. The 960 airplane forecast is also made up of 370 freighters (747-8F and A380F).

Another major trump card that the -8F holds is that it is new technology. This was a key element for Atlas Air’s decision to opt for the -8F, and not for passenger converted 747-400s.

“Corporations will want us to be as green as possible, so we don’t want to be flying 10-year old aircraft with yesterday’s engines. We want aircraft with next-generation engines, the largest payload and best fuel-efficiency,” said Atlas Air CEO, William Flynn, on why the company opted for 12 747-8Fs plus 14 options.

Of course, Flynn’s comment as sparks thoughts about how many 747-400s, for example, will be converted to -400BCFs, but that’s another topic for another time.

Click Here For Image.

Clearly, for 747-8F customer, Emirates SkyCargo, the -8F is capable of reaching virtually everywhere on the African and Asian Continents at a full-revenue payload and load-density of 156,8kg/cubic meter. The outer circle represents the range capability of the -8F carrying a payload similar to that of the -400F in terms of weight; however the load-density is 131k/cubic meter (8,2Ibs/cubic foot). The outer circle represents a range of roughly 10,300km from Dubai. For interest sake, the industry standard load-density average is 152kg/cubic meter (9,5Ibs/cubic foot).

Perhaps the most significant competitor that is set to challenge the new freighters from Boeing, and Airbus, is sea-freight. Boeing has recently remarked that they are considering revising their forecast for annual air-freight growth from 6.1% to “between 5% and 6%”, with sea-freight being cited as the major contributor to this.

Image courtesy of FleetBuzz.com & FleetBuzz Editorial.com

According to an article that was published in Flight International last year, Boeing calculated that once bulk products such as oil, metals and grain are discounted, typical sea-going freight, there were 16.2 trillion revenue tonne kilometres (RTK) of ocean freight in 2005, compared to 178.1 billion RTKs of air-freight.

That gives air-freight a 1.1% market share! This clearly enforces the need for the most fuel-efficient freighter airplanes, as that market is relatively so small, yet vital.However, despite the “real concern”, according to Boeing, regarding sea-freight’s growing popularity, Atlas Air cites that the need for 747-8 Freighter airplanes is still paramount.

Items such as the “growing demand” for fresh vegetables amongst a host of other items will still be required, and demanded, to be flown by air.

One thing is for sure: With the 747-8F, freighter airlines have a state-of-the-art freighter platform, and could not ask for any better freighter, nor could the customers/shippers.

With the 747-8F, Boeing by no means will stand-still with the latest freighter offering in terms of continued improvement that will ultimately offer even better range/payload capabilities for example.

We could all very well see a 747-8ERF sometime in the next decade.

Christopher Cook
Johannesburg, South Africa
Pilot and Boeing 747-400/-8 Enthusiast

Entry Filed under: Aeroplane, Aerospace, Air Transport, Airbus, Airbus A380, Airlines, Airplane, Airport, Airports, Aviation, Boeing, Boeing 747-8, Boeing 747-8F, Boeing 777, Boeing 777-200F, Boeing 777F