Boeing’s New 747-8 Continues a Jumbo Tradition

EVERETT, Washington — Boeing spent more than five years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing its new 747-8, but in the end the decision on whether to send the company’s biggest aircraft ever down the runway and into the air for the first time rested with the man in the cockpit.

The flight window for the 747-8’s maiden flight opened at 10 a.m. Monday, but Mother Nature had other plans. Paine Field was socked in by low clouds, and the clock was ticking. Mark Feuerstein, Boeing’s chief test pilot for the 747 program — the man who has spent years preparing for the day — had to decide whether to proceed.

“If I went too early, I’d be a former Boeing pilot” he said. “If I went too late, I’d be a former Boeing pilot.”

The clouds parted and the sun broke through shortly before noon, and Feuerstein made the call.

It was time to fly.

The 747-8 has efficient new wing and engine design.

Feuerstein wasn’t the only one relieved. Monday’s inaugural flight followed years of delays for both the 787 Dreamliner and 747-8 programs. And the delays weren’t cheap. Boeing took a $1 billion dollar charge on the 747-8 program last fall after continued setbacks and a weakened market, and it concedes the 747-8 isn’t profitable yet, even though there are dozens of orders on the books.

The plane might not be profitable now, but it is important. Boeing ushered in the jumbo-jet era with the first 747 exactly 41 years ago today. It was the biggest commercial plane in the skies, and it carried the title for more than 35 years. But then Airbus came along with the A380 and dethroned the king. Airbus is tempting the airline industry with a huge plane that offers low per-passenger costs because of the large number of people it can carry. Boeing is countering by offering two planes — the 747-8 and the 787 Dreamliner — that it says offer superior fuel economy and greater flexibility for the airlines to fly more routes.

Aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia says it is important for Boeing to maintain a foothold in the big-airplane market. The 747-8 gives airlines another option when shopping for supersized planes, and that keeps the pressure on Airbus while the European company tries to recover the cost of developing and building the A380.

“It plays a strategic role,” Aboulafia said. “It’s not the quarterback, it’s a defensive player.”

Unlike the A380, which only carries passengers — albeit a lot of them — the 747-8 continues the model’s long history as a successful cargo carrier. In fact, the plane that made Monday’s flight — airframe RC501 — is configured as a freighter, and Boeing has 76 orders for the cargo plane. The 747-8 Intercontinental, the passenger version, is expected to fly next year.

Boeing expects the economic recovery will mean an increased demand for both air freight and airline passengers. The company hopes the increased demand will lead to more orders for the 747-8 and says it should be producing two per month by 2013.

Protective oil burns off during engine start on the 747-8.

But that’s down the line. Boeing still has to finish testing the plane and get it certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. Monday’s flight test was the first of many slated for the next six to eight months, first in Washington state and then in California. And on Monday, everybody at Boeing was all smiles.

Feuerstein and co-pilot Tom Imrich started the massive GEnx engines yesterday morning with burst of smoke — nothing to be alarmed by, it was merely the protective film of oil burning off — and taxied into position for takeoff. As an anxious crowd of media, employees and aviation fans waited, the vintage T-33 chase planes flew overhead in formation, indicating RC501 was about to start the takeoff roll.

Moments later, with a T-33 at each wing, the 747-8 began moving down runway 34L with 266,000 pounds of thrust accelerating the plane to its 152-knot rotation speed. Feuerstein pulled the yoke gently, the nose gear rose off the pavement, and Boeing’s biggest bird was airborne.

Feuerstein said the aircraft flew beautifully and was immediately familiar. This is important for Boeing because one of the selling points of the airplane is that it will be an easy transition for pilots who already fly 747s. The easy pilot training means reduced costs for the 747-8 customers.

“As soon as we rotated the airplane I knew we had a 747″ Feuerstein said. “Any 747 crew in the world could have flown the flight that Tom and I just did.”

The 747-8 looks almost identical to the existing 747-400. But behind the trademark hump, the stretched fuselage now measures more than 250 feet. Its 224-foot, 7-inch wingspan can carry more than 550,000 pounds of cargo at speeds of more than 560 miles per hour. Fully loaded it tips the scales at 975,000 pounds.

All the new girth will be carried by a completely new wing and engines. Many of the internal systems are all new as well, including the flight-control computer. Working together, the new technology means the 747-8 carries more passengers or cargo, a farther distance, for less money. That’s a trifecta in the aviation world.

The plan on Monday was for a four-hour flight, but the flight went so well according to Feuerstein, the 747-8 was airborne for only 3 hours and 39 minutes. That leaves just over 1,600 hours of testing to go. And despite the late start, Feuerstein and Imrich completed all the test points they’d planned.

“We were able to accomplish everything on the flight plan, every single test condition,” Feuerstein said.

And they even had time for a little sightseeing before touching down at Paine Field at 4:18 p.m. local time.

“Towards the end we did the obligatory photo around Mt. Rainier, things were going so well,” Feuerstein said.

The GEnx engines have a noise-reduction design.

One of the first things people on the ground noticed about the plane — besides the massive size — is how quiet it is at takeoff. The four engines let out more of a whoosh than a roar, and even as the plane climbed into the sky it didn’t interrupt conversations held just a few hundred feet away. General Electric designed the engines, similar to those found on the 787, to dramatically reduce the noise at airports, adopting such tricks as giving the engine cowling a unique serrated pattern.

The noise reduction is one reason Cargolux signed up for 13 747-8s. Spokesman Patrick Jeanne said the company runs a fleet of 747-400s out of Luxembourg and the new model has a “noise footprint” one-third smaller than the planes they’re using now. That’s a big deal.

“It’s very important to make as little noise as possible.”

Jeanne says the reduced noise is helpful in maintaining community relations, but the jumbo jet’s bigger size and reduced fuel consumption also are important. Boeing says the 747-8 will have 16 percent more cargo capacity, 17 percent lower fuel costs and 16 percent lower operating costs than the 747-400. And because it’s 18 feet longer than the older model, it can carry four additional pallets.

“For us, this is vital just to make sure we can keep growing and remain competitive in the market,” Jeanne said as the new freighter prepared for takeoff.

Monday’s flight came one day shy of the 41st anniversary of first flight of the iconic 747. Joe Sutter was the chief engineer on the original program and is known as the “Father of the 747.” He was at Paine Field to watch the first flight. It was an amazing sight, and Sutter said it would have been impossible to predict in 1969 that four decades later an innovative new model of the original jumbo jet would be making its first flight. But he’s proud of the work his team did designing the basic architecture for such an enduring design.

“Twenty years from now you’ll be standing here in a cold February watching the next version of the 747,” Sutter said after the flight. “It can still absorb more technology and as the market changes, it can change.”

Photos: Jason Paur/Wired.com

Test pilot Mark Feuerstein (left) talks with the Joe Sutter, the chief engineer on the first 747 and the man widely considered the “‘Father of the 747.”

Posted in: Boeing,Flight,Jumbo