B1s Are Back

It looks like 747-8 flight testing is starting to pick up around KPAE, finally. Line 1495 (RC009) A6-PFB (unconfirmed tail) for Abu Dhabi Amiri (BBJ) went up for a B1, and then line 1490 (RC510) LX-VCJ for Cargolux did too. Line 1481 (RC548) HL7623 for Korean Air Cargo should finally get a B1 in soon as well.

Here is line 1495's B1, by moonm:

(UPDATE: Line 1481 is up in the air. Finally after 6 months of neglect. In the comments Piotrek says it's HL7623 and is likely correct.)

In random news, KLM MD11 PH-KCD (to be retired this year with the other three remaining KLM MD11s) has ~85,000 hours and ~13,000 cycles. Man I felt like a dork asking the captain, but he was cool and read it right off the ship's logs.

Korean Confirms, Delta Distances

Korean Air firmed up their top up order of five additional 747-8Is, as part of an order that included six 773ERs and one 787. This means Korean now has ten 747-8Is on order, which should start delivering next year.

Delta CEO Richard Anderson was recently quoted as saying "We had four engines when jet engine technology wasn't advanced. Now jet engines are amazing, amazing machines and you only need two of them". I've had hopes that Delta would be a 747-8I customer. They like proven architectures. They have ten 100,000+ hour 747-400s coming up on retirement around 2017. They like good deals and I'm sure Boeing would be willing to make them happy on price. Anderson, however, seems to throw a wet towel on the prospect. As an aside, his quote sounds a bit Titanic-ish to me in light of the recent issues with GE's most modern "amazing, amazing machines" (re core icing). I'm not saying they aren't amazing; I'm saying they aren't amazing enough for me to not want four of them when I'm 40,000 feet up.

No deliveries to speak of. A rollout, line 1490 (RC510) LX-VCJ for Cargolux (fully painted but no engines), and a test flight for old line 1437 (RC573) today, if the endless fog lifts at Everett. Still trying to figure out what's going on with the latter frame.