There's been very little noise about them lately, but this recent article provides some update on the status of our (9) 747-8 BBJs. Parsed to correspond with the order of the chart's BBJ tab:
UPDATE: BBJ #8 (line 1468 RC008 VQ-BSK) is apparently done. She went up for a test flight and is pending delivery.
- Line 1434: Expected delivery by the end of 2015
- Line 1439: Expected delivery by the end of 2014
- Line 1440: Expected delivery by the end of 2014
- Line 1446: Currently stored and looking for a customer
- Line 1449: Expected delivery by the end of 2014 or early 2015
- Line 1459: Expected delivery by the end of 2014
- Line 1466: Expected delivery by the end of 2014
- Line 1468: Expected delivery by the end of
20152014(?) - Line 1495: Expected delivery to BBJ early January 2015, so this one should be leaving storage in the next month or two. She'll probably go to Lufthansa Technique in January and deliver to the customer in late 2016.
UPDATE: BBJ #8 (line 1468 RC008 VQ-BSK) is apparently done. She went up for a test flight and is pending delivery.
Biz jets are the ultimate in luxury, but that experience isn't what most of us can afford. It makes no sense to me to equate Biz Jets with Airline 1st class, but since the latter has been priced out of reach for most people, flying 1st class isn't going to be around for much longer, because fewer and fewer people can pay to fly on it. Add to that the fact that most of the current airliners are designed to fit the needs of the vast bulk of travelers, there will be no more high end niches like Concorde, designed to be from the outset a machine for 1st class only.
ReplyDeleteTaking a 747 and using it for the purposes of satisfying ones whims, completely negates what the airplane was made to do. However since these people can afford it, I suppose they deserve the luxury, despite the fact that it is an exercise in blinding excess bordering on egotistical self satisfaction (ahem).
I don't even get mad over the opulence, I just get mad that these planes don't fly very often, full, or far, like they're designed to. In my utopian dream world all 747s fly 5000+ hours a year, for 20+ years, filled with people and cargo.
Delete[quote]In my utopian dream world[/quote]
DeleteI want that utopian drug too! :D
With any utopian drug of course, there would be no need for 747's or air travel, why you wont need clothes even, so you can scrap all those combi's AKE's and integrated logistical solutions providers.as well. VIVA LA REVOLUTION.:D
DeleteRC528 delivered:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/mattcawby/status/525736670478753793
I don't understand the list above, couldn't you just put the line #'s next to each one listed? Have the ones already listed been delivered from Boeing to the BBJ customer and now are at the various retrofit companies for final installation of cabins?
ReplyDeleteAll of the BBJs have been completed and either sent to completion centers, or in the case of the most recent BBJ completed, into storage awaiting space at a completion center. The oddball is the one which had the customer pass away. She was at a completion center, but when that happened, I believe she went into storage awaiting a new customer.
DeleteIf you look at the production chart: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AtnGvagiRSU4dEFWRHFxMmpBbFZnTG1wOXVObjZ3Wmc
DeleteYou'll see a tab for the BBJ's. The list matches up with those. Direct link to the tab: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AtnGvagiRSU4dEFWRHFxMmpBbFZnTG1wOXVObjZ3Wmc&gid=4