Mashaling a 747-8 freighter

Today's image of the day depicts a ground worker marshaling Boeing's--and the world's--newest freighter aircraft, the 747-8. The aircraft is part of our focus in this week's article on evaluating the world's largest commercial jets.

Boeing's new 747-8F freighter made its maiden flight on 8 February, with captains Mark Feuerstein and Tom Imrich at the controls. This kicked off a planned 1,600h, three-aircraft flight-test campaign.

Of this, more than 400 flights, covering 1,100h, have been completed. However, as Boeing has put the new jumbo freighter through its paces - including a record 453,600kg (1,000,000lb) take-off for the 747 - technical issues have surfaced. This has prompted time-consuming troubleshooting and resolutions, and pushed first delivery of the freighter to Cargolux from late 2010 to mid-2011 under a delay confirmed in late September. Continue reading...