On one rare occasion when we ferried an empty jet, I recorded a preflight stroll through the main deck of the aircraft. When we arrive at the aircraft for a flight, the main deck is usually a very busy place. Take a walking tour of a Boeing 767-300 freighter interior Unit Load Device (ULD) ready to be loaded. 747 freighters usually have windows in the “hump” because that area is used for jumpseats and crew rest facilities. A factory-built freighter will have smooth sides with not a window in sight. Building a freighter without windows lowers manufacturing costs and reduces the aircraft weight by hundreds of pounds. Installing windows on a fuselage requires extra reinforcement, which means extra weight. Even when they’re painted over, you can see the plugs if you look carefully (they’re easier to see on dirty airplanes).įactory-built cargo variants are windowless. A few still have the old acrylic panes, but on most conversions, the clear windows have been replaced with lightweight aluminum plugs to save on operating costs. Passenger conversions have passenger windows. It’s easy to tell the difference between a passenger conversion and a factory-built freighter: look for windows. When the package express industry exploded a few years ago, manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus began churning out cargo variants directly from the factory in record numbers. Converting an aircraft to a freighter is about a third of the cost of buying a new one, so there is a brisk market for conversions. Retired people-haulers go through a conversion process to start a new life as a freighter. Two Types Of Cargo Aircraft – Conversions and Freighter VariantsĪ few years ago, cargo fleets were comprised primarily of old passenger aircraft. A British Airways Boeing 777, equipped to carry passengers on the main deck and cargo under the floor.
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