Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
I like the older ones, the 747-400 I believe. It worked-well! Now they have been sitting on their hands like automotive engineers do and have come up with gimmicks to stay busy. Really? A nose that folds like the hood of an automobile.......
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C'mon, guy... learn a little history. The 747-100 was originally designed, at least partially, to compete for the military cargo lift spec that the C5 Galaxy won. The swing up nose door was an option FROM THE START. A nose door was part of the military's requirement set. In fact that's the ONLY reason that the 747 is a 2-deck design, the purpose of the upper deck was to allow the cockpit to remain fixed while the nose swung up so that all the flight controls wouldn't have to operate through a massive hinge system.
The military went with the C5 rear ramp/high wing design and its probably a little more useful for that application because it carries its own loading ramp in the rear as well as a low nose so you can drive a tank right through a C5. The high nose requires infrastructure at the airport where loading/unloading will happen, and *that* is fine for air cargo operations. The 747 turned out to be a much better airframe than the C5 in the long run, but the C5 configuration is better for the military (basically same layout as the previous C-141) and was pretty much repeated with the C-17.
They use a big forklift to unload the 747 freighters.
Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
I like the older ones, the 747-400 I believe. It worked-well! Now they have been sitting on their hands like automotive engineers do and have come up with gimmicks to stay busy. Really? A nose that folds like the hood of an automobile.......
.
C'mon, guy... learn a little history. The 747-100 was originally designed, at least partially, to compete for the military cargo lift spec that the C5 Galaxy won. The swing up nose door was an option FROM THE START. A nose door was part of the military's requirement set. In fact that's the ONLY reason that the 747 is a 2-deck design, the purpose of the upper deck was to allow the cockpit to remain fixed while the nose swung up so that all the flight controls wouldn't have to operate through a massive hinge system.
The military went with the C5 rear ramp/high wing design and its probably a little more useful for that application because it carries its own loading ramp in the rear as well as a low nose so you can drive a tank right through a C5. The high nose requires infrastructure at the airport where loading/unloading will happen, and *that* is fine for air cargo operations. The 747 turned out to be a much better airframe than the C5 in the long run, but the C5 configuration is better for the military (basically same layout as the previous C-141) and was pretty much repeated with the C-17.
They use a big forklift to unload the 747 freighters.
