No expense spared: Falling asleep on a plane has never looked as easy as it does in this rendering
Boeing has handed over the first passenger version of its upgraded 747 to a secret VIP customer, who immediately sent the plane along to a modification centre to transform it into the ‘jewel of the sky’. The delivery of the 747-8 Intercontinental – Boeing’s largest and most recognisable commercial airplane – caps a development delay of more than a year.
Seven phwoar seven! Secret VIP customer buys Boeing’s latest jumbo and plans to pimp it out as a sky palace
Delivery of the 747-8 Intercontinental caps a development delay of more than a year
Anonymous VIP customer now has to wait 2.5 years for custom modifications to be made
Boeing has handed over the first passenger version of its upgraded 747 to a secret VIP customer, who immediately sent the plane along to a modification centre to transform it into the ‘jewel of the sky’.
The delivery of the 747-8 Intercontinental – Boeing’s largest and most recognisable commercial airplane – caps a development delay of more than a year.
Boeing, the world’s second-largest plane-maker, marked the milestone with an understated ceremony, keeping the media at arm’s length to safeguard the identity of its customer.
On the move: A Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental airliner taxis before taking off at Paine Field in Everett, Washington, yesterday. It will undergo extensive modifications before it is delivered to an undisclosed VIP customer
Expensive toy: Boeing has taken 36 orders – nine from non-airline customers – for the aircraft, which lists at $332.9million
Jim Albaugh, president and chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said: ‘The 747 is the most iconic airplane in the world, and I know customers are going to love what we’ve done to enhance its performance.
‘The Intercontinental is fast, efficient and quiet, offering real savings and a great flying experience.’
Boeing, which competes for orders with rival Airbus, has taken 36 orders – nine from non-airline customers – for the aircraft, which lists at $332.9million.
Boeing does not identify VIP customers, but past buyers of customised planes have been multi-millionaires and heads of state.
The airplane is more than 12 months behind its initial delivery schedule and some experts say the order book is puny.
VIP customers for planes as large as the 747 often request extensive modifications such as bedrooms or bathrooms to accommodate the special needs of the primary passengers and their entourages.
These modifications typically are done outside of Boeing, but the company must sign off on the changes.
Playboy’s paradise: An artist’s impression of how a potential customer might want the jumbo’s interior to look
No expense spared: Falling asleep on a plane has never looked as easy as it does in this rendering
Conference in the sky: A more business-minded owner might want to include a state-of-the-art conference room aboard the 747-8
Boeing Business Jets president Steve Taylor, who was set to fly the airplane from Paine Field near Seattle, Washington, said it will spend about six months at Boeing’s Wichita facility – the plant that modified Air Force One – for basic modifications.
From there it goes to a facility in Hamburg where it will spend two years receiving customer-specific outfitting like bedrooms, dining rooms and galleys, he said.
Mr Taylor said the unnamed customer wants the new Intercontinental to be the ‘jewel of the sky’.
The Intercontinental is an elongated, upgraded version of the classic 747, which first flew more than 40 years ago. The 747 was the world’s largest airplane until 2005, when Airbus unveiled its A380.
Alex Hamilton, an aerospace analyst and managing director at EarlyBirdCapital, said: ‘The 747-8 has been slow to take off, and the success of the aircraft is still questionable given so few orders.’
Boeing had delayed the delivery to 2012 from the fourth quarter of 2011. The company blamed delays in flight testing and the time required to incorporate flight-test driven changes.
Confidential: Boeing does not identify VIP customers, but past buyers of customised planes have been multi-millionaires and heads of state
Front-on: The Intercontinental is an elongated, upgraded version of the classic 747, which first flew more than 40 years ago
The first airline set to receive the plane is Germany’s Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which has ordered 20. Boeing has not set a delivery date for Lufthansa’s first Intercontinental.
The Intercontinental incorporates some of the technology of the lightweight, carbon-composite 787 Dreamliner.
It can seat 467 passengers, 51 more than the current version of the 747, but fewer than the competing 525-seat A380.
By some estimates, the new 747-8 is 8 to 10 tonnes overweight.
Elizabeth Lund, 747 program manager, acknowledged the plane is heavier than originally planned. But she said a redesigned wing makes up for the weight in terms of performance.
Additional weight can reduce the distance a plane can fly or the amount of cargo it can carry.
The freighter version of the 747-8 was first delivered in October. Orders for the freighter have been strained by an economic downturn that has dampened cargo markets.
Boeing made first delivery of its 787 Dreamliner last year after three years of delays. The 787 represents a bigger leap in technology than the 747-8.
Off to a new home: The 747-8 takes off for Boeing’s Wichita facility – the plant that modified Air Force One – where it will spend about six months for basic modifications
Off to a new home: The 747-8 takes off for Boeing’s Wichita facility – the plant that modified Air Force One – where it will spend about six months for basic modifications
The Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental can seat 467 passengers, 51 more than the current version of the 747, but fewer than the competing 525-seat A380
Commercial plane: The first airline set to receive the plane is Germany’s Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which has ordered 20
Watch video of the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental’s test flight here:
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Numerology and false flag article intended to elicit a response not withstanding . . . Palatial LUXURY is an open air deck and not rushing at a few hundred miles an hour to keep afloat. That means VTOL style engines and air craft carrier sized decks, or a blimp moving slowly enough so the wind won’t buffet. Otherwise it’s not much of a Jewel of any Sky.
If you can’t step outside and enjoy the sun, scenery or even breathe fresh air, which is rushing past at 100s of miles an hour, it’s a glorified and misnamed meme that ‘jewel’, much like Branson’s misnamed ‘commercial spaceport’ which is on the ground and has no craft that can reach space though reaching sub-orbital and not ‘commercial’ because it carries passengers and does not have cargo capacity but does carry passengers, has little relation to.
If I were said VIP, I’d either develop VTOL based Fusion energy powered craft, or to save money, invest in an extra large blimp or few at a fraction of the price as the below company in formation is doing, that hosts as large an ‘on top’ (instead of below hanging) high tech light weight material platform as possible so the passengers can catch some beams – sea cruise style . . .
Palaces are leisurely like the pace a balloon gives (not too much like the one in Æon Flux (2005 Karyn Kusama), that Boeing (and all other) planes (the larger the worse) are just another metal box with seat or a office-like lobby inside, rushing to certain doom. Cheers instead, from balloon platform twice the size of that narrow cabin, as the countryside floats by . . . who needs to get to any major capital in 16 hours? 2 weeks (or 80 days?) is fine by the wealthy with time to burn . . . try that for real phwoar !
This is an ‘Aircruise Concepts International’ ™® – no cybersquatting – company and concept in formation. A series of ‘Aircruise Concept International’s’ ‘TSA FREE Cruise Balloon Airfields’ perhaps with docking towers featuring retractable walkways which are being identified internationally is being considered. We get you to any major destinations worldwide, slow and pleasant (sails perhaps?) instead of hurtling in metal cylinders (much like MiGo Brain cylinders, who knows what neuotropic gases could be introduced in such enclosed places . . . ) powered by equally dangerous engines . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi-go
In any case, a ‘jewel of the sky’ does not rush past at 100s of mph, but drifts close enough, not ‘Costa Cruise’ close though . . . so probably there are no flying ‘Ice Banks’ to crash into or ‘Cloud Banks’, especially when close enough for earthbound spectators to see the ‘whites of their eyes’ – no racism intended . . . for all to appreciate and admire.
Whats so paradisical about being in a ‘bullet’ (those passengers mights as well be grains of gunpowder), about not being able to feel the sunlight on your skin, breathe air that has not been filtered through half a dozen venting systems and filters – recycled even? . . .
Enough with the cooped up, low ceilinged death trap cabins of aircraft and seacraft of the day – do we really need that sort of speed? – . . . ditch the TSA for private seaports, private airports or private airstrips (no spaceports yet though?) and there you go – real luxury – looks like USA needs private roads as well too, TSA is targeting roads now. No USA congressmen or governors or senators ready to end TSA yet huh? If I were Russia, I’d build a TSA free replica of NY, Manhattan, LA, Chicago, Detroit, Florida and Texas then ask the citizens of USA to migrate there WITH preferred autonomous zone type laws based on preferred parts of the US constitution (i.e. no TSA, no Food Bill, no Federal Reserve etc..).
Meanwhile Muslims ready to martyr themselves (MRTMTs???), don’t ever target or accidentally kill civilians because the Islamophobia does not exist in your average citizen – it’s a sin to target the innocent (especially non-Muslims who are free to commit Haram acts who have nothing against Islam and are minding their own business, living their Haram lives . . . ), but only comes from a very small minority who are influencing your typical Western politicians – who are still full of bad judgment for allowing what goes in in some parts of the West. I’m not referring to non-Muslim stuff like alcoholic drinks or legalized gambling (other than 4D or Lottery, the whole gamut of games rather) or legalized prostitution, but humanitarian or Abu Gharaib type abuses . . .
malaysiandemocracy 