Boeing's next-gen 747 takes first flight

The 747-8 Freighter, whose passenger version is slated to come a year later, is getting tested alongside the 787 Dreamliner in Washington state.

Boeing's 747-8F takes to the air for the very first time on Monday, from Paine Field in Everett, Wash. This is the first time Boeing has conducted two major flight test regimens at the same time. The company is also flight-testing the 787 Dreamliner.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)










Next-generation 747 takes first air (photos)

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Feuerstein was joined on the flight by 747 senior test pilot Tom Imrich.

Johnson said that after takeoff, the pilots would choose their direction--either head toward eastern Washington state, or fly west out over the Strait of Juan de Fuca, north and west of Seattle, depending on weather conditions.

The plane will be limited to to an altitude of between 10,000 feet and 20,000 feet and a top speed of 220 knots (about 253 mph), Johnson said. And while the 747-8F will eventually be put through a full battery of tests--approximately 3,700 hours worth, including those for stability and control, airspeed, stalling, flight flutter, and ground vibration--on Monday, "they'll just evaluate the landing gear and flaps...and come home."

For Monday's flight, the plan is to land the 747-8F here at Paine Field rather than touch down at Boeing Field in Seattle, about 30 miles south, as the 787 Dreamliner did at the end of its initial flight. That's because the 787 program is based at Boeing Field, while the 747-8 program will be moving down to Palmdale, Calif., northeast of Los Angeles. But Paine Field is adjacent to Boeing's mammoth Everett production facility, where all 747s are manufactured.

Totally unique
According to Bob Saling, Boeing's communications manager for cargo airplanes, it is totally "unique" for the company to simultaneously have two separate major test flight regimens. While the 787 Dreamliner has gotten the lion's share of the attention in the last couple of years, Boeing considers the 747-8, both the freighter and the passenger versions, to be important in making it possible to fly the largest amount of cargo or people between major hubs around the world.

In other words, Saling said, the 747-8 will be intended for routes such as Hong Kong to Los Angeles or Hong Kong to San Francisco, while the Dreamliner--with its smaller capacity but similar range--might fly fewer people out of smaller cities, such as Seattle.

That's why Boeing is committed to pursuing the 747 and 787 programs at the same time. The 747-8 program is "important in perspective, in that it continues a legacy program, although with a lot more capability," Saling said.

The 747-8F disappears into the clouds after takeoff.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

The initial customers for the 747-8F will be Cargolux and NCA, while the big customer for the passenger version, Saling said, will be Lufthansa.

Meanwhile, Boeing spokeswoman Jennifer Hawton said the company has all the resources it needs to move forward with the 747-8 and 787 programs, despite some reports suggesting that delays in the Dreamliner program necessitated moving personnel away from the 747-8, leading to delays for that initiative.

Either way, with the 747-8F now in the air, two more test planes ready to follow suit, and six 787s involved in that plane's test program, it's clear that Boeing is moving forward full-throttle with the next two elements of its plan to stay on top of the commercial aviation heap and--it hopes--a step ahead of its archrival, the European consortium Airbus.

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