World’s longest airliner ready for take-off
The world’s longest passenger airliner, the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, will go into service with launch customer Lufthansa early next year.
The first 747-8 Intercontinental emerged from the paint hangar at Boeing’s Everett factory near Seattle last Sunday in Lufthansa livery.
After completing extensive ground tests, the aircraft will undergo initial test flights in November and is scheduled to go into service next spring.
The Boeing 747-8 has been stretched by six metres compared with the Boeing 747-400 and measures 76.3 metres in length.
Lufthansa has ordered 20 Boeing 747-8s, which consume 13% less fuel than the Boeing 747-400.
The aircraft are due for delivery from the beginning of 2012 through to mid-2015.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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