Sound of Silence

The Dubai Air Show is happening, and the big Middle East carriers are ordering 1 billion planes, none of which are 747-8s. It's disheartening for a 747-8 fan. The capacity Emirates ordered between their 150 777X and 50 A380 purchase is astounding. Either Emirates is onto something that no other carrier is aware of, or they're going too big too fast. It'll be interesting to see. Either way, it would've been great if there were twenty or thirty 747-8s in that order somewhere, but alas there aren't. My hopes of Emirates or Etihad buying into it now have almost entirely evaporated.

Around KPAE, I've identified the mysterious white tail. Cargolux line 1491 (RC511) LX-VCK snuck out of the final assembly line on us a few weeks back. Lufthansa's tenth frame, line 1492 (RC031) D-ABYL, rolled out with engines. This is the first frame to incorporate all of the performance improvements directly out of the FAL. A couple recent frames have been painted, had engines installed, and even had engine runs. However, it's really getting late to deliver these frames in 2013, and activity has been very slow. Either the three new Cathay frames start flying soon or they must be planning on the deliveries slipping to 2014.

Lufthansa line 1492 (RC031) D-ABYL, by Matt Cawby

And in bragging news, I'm going on a business trip to China tomorrow for a week, and I scored an upper deck business class seat in a Philippines 747-400. I'm pretty excited as I've never gotten to fly in the upper deck before. #ballin