Recently in Freighter Category

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the maiden flight of the iconic Antonov An-124-100 Ruslan freighter, one of its biggest operators - cargo airline Volga-Dnepr - has organised a photo competition to capture the raw beauty of these bulky lumps of aluminium. Over 130 professional and amateur snappers entered images, with the pic of the bunch these two. The overall winner was Ognyan Stefanov from Bulgaria for his photo of an Аn-124-100 freighter taking off from Sofia Airport. Stewart Marshall, from Hamilton in the UK, took the second shot of an An-124-100.

Ognyan Stepanov

Stewart Hamilton

From a shaky start Boeing is finally ramping up deliveries of its new jumbo. Today saw the 20th handover, with this example, a Freighter, destined for Atlas Air, on contract to global logistics firm Panalpina. This is the first time in Panalpina's history that an aircraft has been painted in the company's livery. Its first service will be between Everett and Hong Kong and then on to Luxembourg with cargo on board. Atlas Air has ordered nine 747-8 Freighters, two of which they will operate for Panalpina.

Credit: Boeing

Fresh out the box at Boeing's Everett plant is global parcel behemoth UPS's 50th 767-300 Freighter. According to Boeing's order figures it's still got another nine of the type to arrive. Meanwhile its great rival, FedEx, has 27 of the cargo aircraft on order.

Credit: Boeing

From the Commercial Aviation gallery on Flightglobal/AirSpace here's Cargolux's shiny new Boeing 747-8F shortly after departure to Bangkok.

Credit: user Commercial Aviation on AirSpace

We love a freighter round these parts, and here's a shot of a fresh-off-the-production-line Airbus A330-200F, destined for Chinese carrier Yangtze River Express. The airline, part of HNA Group, has five of the type on order.

Credit: French Frogs Aviation Pics

Spotted this on the New Zealand Defence Force's flickr stream. It's an Antonov An-124-100 fresh from delivering the country's first NH Industries NH90 helicopters to 3 Sqn at RNZAF Base Ohakea from Marignane, France.

Credit: New Zealand Defence Force

File under 'where are they now'. Pictured at London Heathrow in 1986, this freighter was operated by Iraqi Airways - essentially the Iraqi Air Force - until it was acquired by Aeroflot in 1988. Then it transferred to Uzbek firm TAPC Aviatrans in 1992 (registration UK-76821) and has since been leased to airlines including Airstars and Silk Way Airlines. Data from Flightglobal Ascend Online.

Credit: AirTeamImages

As a former logistics hack, I have a soft spot for the grungy world of cargo carriers. But somehow Boeing's 777 Freighter almost muscles its way into the 'glamorous' category, particularly in FedEx livery. It's a programme that's going great guns too - this being the 50th 777F, and the 16th for FedEx, pictured on its departure from Paine Field yesterday.

Credit: Boeing

Today was meant to be the day that Boeing sailed over one of the many delivery hurdles littering its path with the handover of the first 747-8F to Cargolux. Except that now seems to be on a back-burner as Cargolux - under pressure from 35% shareholder Qatar Airways - has refused to accept the aircraft. So, now we wait to see who blinks first... meanwhile, in happier times, here's a shot of the 747 in question on what is described as its final acceptence flight on 12 September.

Credit: AirTeamImages

Picture credit: Airbus 

Airbus is preparing to transport the first A350 upper wing-cover from Germany to the airframer's main wing facility in the UK.

It has loaded the upper cover, manufactured at its Stade plant, onto one of its A300-600ST freighters for transit to Broughton over the next few days. Continue reading...