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BA Landor Boeing 747-400Y


Abandoned Project

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First, my little backstory....

 

After Boeing completed the 747-600 for the British Government in BOAC colours the interest in other 747 derivatives was rekindled. As the cruise ship trade slowly grew in the south Atlantic the British government became interested in a long range 747 to reach the Falkland Islands with a direct flight from British Airways home base of Heathrow airport. Their aim was for BA to fly directly to the Falkland Islands then across to Santiago in Chile and then return to the UK via the Falkland Islands. So late in 1999 the British government then encouraged BA to ask Boeing if it was possible to get a 747 with a range of over 8,000nmi without a ten digit price tag. Early in 2000 they were told yes. The answer came in the form of the 747-500 to which BA said "no" due to it being too big and it would have a ten digit price tag. So after some time had passed, in 2001 Boeing went back to BA with a choice of the 747-400X, the 747-X and the 747-Xstretch. The 747-400X was ruled out immediately due to a lack of range and the 747-Xstretch went as well due to being too much like the 747-500, which left the 747-X which BA liked but felt was a bit too big for the new runway at Stanley.
Boeing then offered something slightly smaller than the 747-X in the form of the 747-400Y. This was the original base design of both the 747-X and -Xstretch. With new engines and a small fuselage extension due to a wingspan increase by adding wing root extensions, the larger wing box could house extra fuel tanks and the fuel capacity increase would result in a range of over 8500nmi. By using the existing -400F undercarriage and wings from the inner wing pylon outwards costs could be kept to a minimum.
With a range of almost 8,800nmi the production model was named the 747ULR (ultra long range) to differentiate it from the new 747-400ER, the production name for the 747-400X.
Boeing was building the 747-400ER with the standard length fuselage and wingspan of the 747-400 for Qantas.
After much deliberation as to the choice engines BA gave way to Boeing's wishes for the new General Electric engine featuring some of the latest developments in fan blade and compressor technology being developed for the 777-300ER resulting in a better fuel consumption rate than the RR Trent 900s on the 747-600.
Although both BA and the British government had been quietly hoping to have the 747ULR in service for the 20th anniversary of the Falklands war, the 747ULR didn't enter service until August 2003, due to delays in the engine production, with the registration G-BFLK City of Stanley in the Landor scheme as voted for by the Falkland Islands Legislative Council. It then flew scheduled flights across the south Atlantic to the Falklands til its replacement in 2020 with an Airbus A350.

In reality it all started with the 747-400IGW (increased gross weight) proposal, which in turn produced the 747-400X and 747-400Y. The 747-400X went into production as the 747-400ER. The 747-400Y proposal was developed into the 747-X proposal, which also was the basis for the 747-Xstretch both of which never left the drawing board but provided features for the 747-8.

 

The work (not much) so far...

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ready for stretching

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Currently working on the (possibly insane) idea of hanging some GE90-115 engines off my -400Y, which GE did with one on their testbed 747.

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It's a 747-8i pylon with the revezda GE90-115 engine. The beauty of this engine is that the pylon is separate from the nacelle. Just a rough mock up on a 747-8i

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