FLUG REVUE September 2004: 747 Advanced proposed by Boeing

BOEING STUDIES 747 ADVANCED

By Sebastian Steinke

747 Advanced

The good old Boeing 747 is having a tough time these days: on the one hand, the A380 threatens to upstage it as the biggest civil aircraft in the world, while on the other hand rivals that were originally smaller than the jumbo are also poaching customers in what was once the undisputed territory of the double-decker giant from Seattle. Apart from the A380, two other contenders are the A340-600, with its high cargo capacity, and the 777-300ER, which may have only two engines but is constantly being improved.

But Alan Mullaly, President and CEO, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, is confident that the time to cease production of the tried and tested four-jet aircraft has not yet arrived. “The Boeing 777 will gradually replace the older versions of the 747, that is, the -100, -200 and -300, as it offers the same seat mile costs. In the past 747's were often purchased purely because of their range, without the capacity really being needed. One day the 777 will even replace all the 747's. But the 747-400 will stay around for many years to come, and we will continue to improve it. We plan to make a decision about the 747 over the next year.”

To significantly improve the time-tested 747 a second time will be no simple matter: the present highly successful -400 version, which has won 659 orders so far, is the product of a major update programme carried out by the manufacturer at the end of the 1980s and aimed at modernising the jumbo basic design, which dated from the 1960s. This entailed the installation of modern engines, a two-man cockpit and improved aerodynamics. Significantly more elaborate plans that would have entailed lengthening the 747 into an A380 competitor and would have required an entirely new wing had to be shelved despite several initiatives, due to lack of interest on the part of the airlines.

Today Boeing is following a different approach with the further development of the 747, as Brad Till, regional director of product marketing for the 747, explained in an interview with FLUG REVUE in Seattle. “We do not see any market in the size of the 747 that would justify developing a completely new aircraft. No one wants an 800-seater. Instead, we are planning a series of improvements that will not cost hundreds of thousands of engineer-hours, but will still bring a lot of benefit.”

The 747 Advanced could carry 34 passengers and two freight pallets more than a 747-400 and also satisfy the stringent QC2 take-off noise restrictions around London Heathrow. Its 1,370km extra range would permit non-stop flights from Frankfurt to Buenos Aires, from Hong Kong to New York or from Sydney to Dallas.

Riding on the back of technology developed for the 7E7, the 3.6m longer 747 Advanced could benefit from the fuel-saving engines on the new twin-jet, albeit in a variant with bleed air that has still to be developed. According to Boeing's calculations, the 747 Advanced would need 15 percent less kerosene per seat than a 747-400 and 14 percent less than an A380 over a distance of 11,000km. Till is critical of the way that the empty weight of its rival, the A380, has risen during development. “Compared with a 747-400, the A380 is about 57 percent heavier per seat.” According to Boeing, the trip cost of a 747 Advanced (450 passengers) will be 19 percent less than that of an A380 (542 passengers) over a 5,000km distance, and the seat mile costs will also be three percent better than those of its larger European rival, which is already designed for future growth.

New materials, such as aluminium alloys and composite materials, will make the 747 Advanced lighter, and its cockpit will resemble those of the 7E7 and 777, allowing standard pilot training as for a family of aircraft. The 747 Advanced will inherit the undercarriage, tyres and brakes of the 777, while its electronically wired (“e-enabled”) cabin with internet access over a satellite antenna will come from the 7E7.

The Boeing engineers have come up with an extra trump card for future versions of the 747: they propose to utilise the “attic” space that is currently wasted to the rear of the upper deck bulge, above the main deck. Here one could accommodate up to 40 “Sky Suites” or “Skybunks”. Passengers would be able to move to these triangular-shaped sitting and sleeping compartments from their normal seats in the main deck directly after take-off, climbing up a small, separate staircase in the rear cabin area. FLUG REVUE was allowed to visit a full-size cabin mock-up of the area. As an alternative to the hotel-room like, larger Sky Suites which were also presented, Boeing expects even greater customer interest for the somewhat more modest, but still very comfortable Skybunks.

The individual compartments, either curtained off or fitted with sliding doors, branch off on either side of a central aisle above the main deck, with sufficient headroom available for FLUG REVUE's 1.9m tall journalist to stand upright. Here one could sit either with one's feet up and watch television on a large screen or surf or work unobserved on a computer, or else one could sleep in a diagonal position on a full-length bed. It is not possible to install any windows in the Skybunks, as they are surrounded by countless airducts and cables. A separate lounge area with bar plus a spacious toilet in the “small upper deck” complete the comfortable optional extras available for a surcharge on the ticket price. Alternatively, storage areas for food trolleys or office compartments could be installed above the rear main deck.

The new fixtures would not alter the present bulge of the jumbo with its upper deck area, but Boeing has changed its layout. From the entrance in the main deck, passengers will now be able to climb to the upper deck via an imposing curved staircase. In this respect the 747 Advanced copies the impressive spaciousness of the A380 entrance. The Americans are also proposing to have a kind of porter's lodge by door two, which could be used as a sound-proof office cabin during the cruise if a concierge was no longer required after boarding. Finally, the new design package features LED lighting and reshaping of the cabins. In particular, the complicated cabling for in-flight entertainment and on-board internet access, which is relatively costly to retrofit, should get many airlines thinking about their next jumbo.

Whereas Boeing would like to stimulate demand for the new 747 through the gradual conversion into special freighters of today's large stock of around 1,400 jumbo jets, in Chicago they are also thinking about an entirely new Advanced Freighter. This would be stretched even further than the passenger version, by 5.1m, and would have a maximum take-off weight of 422 tonnes. With 130 tonnes of cargo on board, the Advanced Freighter would have a range of 8,260km. An extra four pallets could be accommodated in the main deck, with two extra containers and two pallets in the lower deck. According to Boeing, the engines, cockpit and materials for the product development study resemble the passenger version. Both Advanced jumbos would have a modified wing with reinforced structure, larger tanks and the raked wingtips which are already familiar from the 767-400. Provided that sufficient airline interest can be generated, the two new jumbo versions could be available by the end of the decade.

From page 28 of FLUG REVEU 9/2004

Last updated 16 August 2004

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