FYI
I would not look for a 744 freighter anytime soon. A buddy of mine is, high on the food chain over at UPS. he told me that they looked into purchasing parked 744's. The problem is the pax version does not have the beefed up floor loading requirements (they reduce the aluminium to cut down on the weight in order to get the range), people weigh less then cargo so their is no need for the heavy duty floor. Nor does it have the beefed up landing gear required for cargo ops.
Apparently UPS did a complete study on this and determined it was cheaper to just purchase new aircraft VS taking parked 744 and converting them to cargo ops.
I would not look for a 744 freighter anytime soon. A buddy of mine is, high on the food chain over at UPS. he told me that they looked into purchasing parked 744's. The problem is the pax version does not have the beefed up floor loading requirements (they reduce the aluminium to cut down on the weight in order to get the range), people weigh less then cargo so their is no need for the heavy duty floor. Nor does it have the beefed up landing gear required for cargo ops.
Apparently UPS did a complete study on this and determined it was cheaper to just purchase new aircraft VS taking parked 744 and converting them to cargo ops.
