thekeeling.com » MD-11 http://thekeeling.com From the Desk of Julian A. Keeling Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:21:17 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Goodbye To The 747-200 Freighter http://thekeeling.com/archives/54 http://thekeeling.com/archives/54#comments Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:42:08 +0000 julian http://thekeeling.com/?p=54 After Connie Kalitta losing three 747-200′s in the last three months, the end of the old workhorse (second to the DC 3) is nigh. Most 747-200′s were passenger conversions and have been flying for over thirty years. Ironically still in UPS’s fleet are their original 747-100′s (they are close to forty years old) so with good maintenance the early built 747′s can still do their job.

What is killing off the old 747′s and DC 10′s is they are gas guzzlers and their yields and payloads are inferior to the MD 11′s and 747-400′s. As airlines upgrade their fleets, there aren’t too many Connie Kalitta’s left, who will take on these tired old aircraft because the maintenance and running costs now make it totally uneconomic to fly them.

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