777 Freighter

[TrinidadGT20]

Boeing announced recently the launching of a new 777 derivative for the freighter market. (Article Here)

I don't understand what there is to "launch". Isn't a freighter simply a regular plane with beefed up floor joists, rolling floors, and a large door in the side of the fuselage? The 777 has been around since 1995 and it's taken them nine years to offer this variant??? I don't understand why.

It also seems that they should have continued making the MD11F (freighter only) until the 777F was ready. FedEx and Lufthansa both wanted Boeing to make more MD11's Freighters. The three-holers are excellent for freight.

[NJA_Capt]

Freighter versions of the 757 and 767 do not have cabin windows, fewer emer exits, and small cockpit entry doors (not full sized doors) in addition to the cargo door.

[TallFlyer]

How do the two aircraft (MD11 and 777) compare as far as max load, fuel, economics, etc?

On a side note, I've been working for a ground handler here in Anchorage for about a month and a half, and I get to clear all the incoming paperwork through customs. You'd be amazed at some of the stuff I've seen:

60K Lbs of Printers
75K Lbs of Ryobi Powertools
50K Lbs of Lingerie

good stuff........

I wonder if some of those freighters ever carry meat?

[TallFlyer]

Brian, last night on a flight there was some dry0ice packed frozen meat going from down under to DFW. A whole 13 kilograms of it.....

[mpenguin1]

It is a little more than that to launch a freighter, don't forget, loading cargo through the front of the airplane & tail. Probably have to reinforce the landing gear, gone are all the seats & in their place are the pallet positions.

[Polarbear]

Just to clarify, most freighters have only one cargo door for loading and unloading. All of ours at UPS only have one.

[Minuteman]

It takes a long time to put 60,000 cycles on an aircraft before it can become a freighter...

[UPSboxbeetch]

Part of the reason the freighter version is just being launched is it is based off the new long range variant of the 772. The passenger version 772LR is going to be launched very soon.

Rumor has it UPS is looking pretty closely at the 772 LRF.

-bb

[ready2fly]

<--Good GOD man!!! And ya'll thought MY melon was gargantuan?????

[seagull]

The 777 freighter needs an entirely new floor. Unlike aircraft such as the MD11, which just needs the interior gutted and rollers, the 777 floor is unable to withstand the loads. There will be no P/F conversions in the 777, which is not a good thing for those wanting to buy the aircaft (the A380 has similar issues, incidentally).

As for payload, if one takes the pax 777 numbers, it would have significantly less payload capacity than an MD11. I believe the 777 freighter will have a lot higher MZFW, which will offset that and put it in the same class as far as payload capability.

[Blinky]

The structural work for putting that big hole in the side takes a significant amopunt of engineering. The floors and loading system take consideration also.
According to the numbers the payload will be significant #220,000 +. Max gross is around # 775,000. Those are huge numbers-higher than 747-100 freighters. With the lower fuel burn from just 2 motors it will probably be a highly desirable a/c for the freight haulers.