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selecta · Member Joined: 24 Dec 2006 Posts: 813 Location: ORD

By J. LYNN LUNSFORD
The Wall Street Journal
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SEATTLE — Boeing Co. engineers love to marvel over the elegant lines of their flying machines. But everybody agrees the company's newest creation is one ugly duckling.

The plane is officially called the Large Cargo Freighter. The craft is a standard 747 that received an extreme makeover in Taipei, Taiwan, last summer — a process that involved removing the jet's passenger cabin and signature hump, then replacing them with a cavernous cargo hold. The tail section now swings open on giant hinges that protrude from one side of the fuselage, like elbows.

Even the people who might defend it are quick to point out its lack of curb appeal. "It has to be one of the ugliest planes I've ever seen," says Boeing Vice President Mike Bair, who sometimes refers to the plane as a "beast."

Boeing has no plans to market the plane commercially. And yet this machine may be one of the most significant jets the company has built in recent years: The cargo plane plays a vital role in Boeing's manufacturing plans for its new 787 "Dreamliner," which is scheduled to enter service in mid-2008. To help cut costs, Boeing farmed out a majority of Dreamliner's production to far-flung partners in Japan, Italy, South Carolina and Kansas.

The sprawling nature of the 787's supply chain makes it a challenge to move parts around in a timely fashion. The Large Cargo Freighter was built to solve this problem.

The Dreamliner's 43-foot-long nose section, for example, to be built in Wichita, Kan., is too tall to travel by rail to Boeing's final assembly plant in Everett, Wash. Boeing could truck it 130 miles to Tulsa, Okla., for a barge ride down the Arkansas River. But 17 locks lie between there and New Orleans and the open sea. After that, the trip through the Panama Canal and up the entire West Coast would require up to 45 days of transit time.

Aboard the flying cargo freighter, however, the same nose section could make it from Wichita to Everett in just under four hours.

The unusual craft measures 235 feet long and stands almost 71 feet tall at the tail. Its vaulted cargo hold has a capacity of 65,000 cubic feet, or about three times that of a typical 747 freighter used by big shippers such as United Parcel Service Inc.

"Some people may say this plane is ugly, but I call it an elegant logistics solution," says Mike Bunney, the Boeing executive in charge of managing the Dreamliner's transportation system.

Boeing has contracted with Evergreen International Airlines of McMinnville, Ore., to operate three of these flying hippos, crisscrossing the world between Boeing and its major suppliers. The company plans to make the first of these milk runs this month as it begins assembling the first of 448 Dreamliners on order.

Production plans for the Dreamliner call for major fuselage sections to be shipped from Nagoya, Japan, to Charleston, S.C., where they will be mated with sections airlifted from Grottaglie, Italy. By the time the ballet is completed, Boeing hopes to snap the 787 sections together like a giant model airplane in Everett in just three days, compared with up to a month that it now takes to complete similar-size jetliners.

Boeing got its first retrofitted 747 this summer and was in such a hurry to begin flight-safety tests that it opted not to paint the numerous aluminum patches and panels until later, only adding to its monster-in-the-making appearance.

Reviews began pouring in just hours after the freighter made its debut in Seattle. A photograph depicting it with an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile paint scheme started landing in Boeing emails. The jab offended some engineers, but mostly entertained others.

In September, Boeing Commercial Airplanes Chief Executive Scott Carson was speaking to a group of airline and aerospace executives at a luncheon at Seattle's Museum of Flight when the plane lumbered past. Mr. Carson was quick to note that Joe Sutter, who designed the original 747 in the 1960s, was in the room. "Joe," he said, "I'm sorry for what we did to your plane."

Over the years, engineers have hatched dozens of gawky birds — so many that some aviation Web sites have chat rooms dedicated to arguments over which was most hideous. For the most part, the ugly title has been associated with flying warehouses such as the giant Russian Antonov cargo planes and the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy. The most famous of these, billionaire Howard Hughes's HK-1 wooden "Spruce Goose," flew only once in 1947. Today that airplane is on display at Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville.

In Seattle, cars pull over on Interstate 5 to watch when the Large Cargo Freighter takes off or lands. Jim Goodall, a Seattle aviation author and shutterbug, described the plane as "so alarmingly ugly that you immediately want to grab your camera and take a picture of it to show to all of your friends."

The plane has generated some notoriety in recent weeks as it has racked up more than 100 hours of aerial testing. In November, a student pilot and an instructor in a single-engine Cessna 172 inadvertently flew through the freighter's wake turbulence while preparing to land. The Cessna flipped upside down and dived almost 1,000 feet before the quick-thinking instructor was able to regain control. According to a National Transportation Safety Board report, the Cessna came within 150 feet of hitting the water in a ship-loading canal at the Port of Seattle.

At a December celebration for the Dreamliner program, Mr. Bair announced that Boeing had finally decided to put a little lipstick on its new pig. Once the Large Cargo Freighter has completed flight testing, it will be painted white, with a dark blue tail.

On its side, in large letters, will be its new name: Dreamlifter.
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HAWK21M · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 12:51 pm Post subject:

Lots of good pics on Anet.
This Aircraft has no APU.
regds
MEL
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Think of the Brighter side !!!

Nimish · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 1:49 pm Post subject:

Nice article on the ugly beast - would love to see it in person.

And imagine what can happen when Airbus decides to make something similar from their 380F!! Shocked

selecta · Member Joined: 24 Dec 2006 Posts: 813 Location: ORD

the_380 · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:09 pm Post subject:

I had a feeling from the start that Boeing might sell the LCFs in order to compete with the A380F
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HAWK21M · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:50 am Post subject:

The LCF is mainly built to carry Wing & Fuselage sections sections of the B787.Remember there is still no APU.
regds
MEL
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Think of the Brighter side !!!

the_380 · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:26 pm Post subject:

HAWK21M · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:35 pm Post subject:

The Swing tail will prevent the APU mounting.
regds
MEL
_________________
Think of the Brighter side !!!