Well, the month of November 2012 is over. There were only three deliveries, out of an expected five or six. Two BBJ's, lines 1434 (the first test 747-8i) for Kuwait and 1459 (maybe) for Bahrain delivered, as well as line 1465 for Cargolux. A couple other deliveries slipped into (hopefully) December. The 2012 delivery total is currently at 26; 32 is looking like a long shot now. (Edit from the future, 12/2/2012: Looks like there were four deliveries in November, including frame 1430 for ABC).
Another milestone in November is the lack of any red in my production chart, which means there are no more undelivered stored frames. The last one, line 1437 for a still unknown/nonexistent customer and parked at the tower ramp seemingly forever, was moved to stall 119 to begin refurbishment just two days ago. Photo by Matt Cawby.
This also means there are now 14 747's sitting on the KPAE flight line. Well, one is in the paint hanger and should be out any second now. And one is at the EMC technically. But still, that's a lot of jumbo frames sitting around preparing or waiting for delivery. Test flights on two frames, line 1466, a BBJ for Oman, and 1477, a freighter for Atlas/DHL, have been quite active, and both should be delivering in the next couple days. But everything else seems stagnant. Rumors have been mentioned about this involving the contract issues between Boeing and their engineers. I hope things get resolved soon, because it would be so boring without wide body progress to
The chart has been updated with the latest status 747Classic posted on airliners.net.
Edit: This popped up on Matt Cawby's blog. Line 1468 for a Qatari customer?
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