World’s longest passenger aircraft

It may surprise you but it is not built in Toulouse but in Seattle.  The world’s longest passenger aircraft, a Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, emerged from the paint hangar at Boeing’s Everett factory last week resplendent in Lufthansa livery.  The German airline is the lead carrier for the new type, a precedent set back in 1968 with the Boeing 737.

After completing extensive ground tests, the aircraft will undergo initial test flights in November, and is scheduled to go into service next spring with the registration D-ABYA.  Lufthansa is the launch customer for the passenger version of the Boeing 747-8 and has therefore been involved from the outset in the design of the aircraft.

The 747-8 has been stretched by six metres compared with the 747-400.  The “Dash 8”, which no doubt it will be called (the DHC Dash 8 has been renamed the Q400) is 76.3m in length (250ft) and has a wing span of 224ft 7in (68.45m).

Lufthansa has ordered 20 Boeing 747-8s, which are due for delivery from the beginning of 2012 through to mid-2015, and also has options on a further 20 aircraft. www.boeing.com/commercial www.lufthansa.com

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