Originally Posted by
PAXboy
South African Airways Fl 295 Helderberg
November 1987. The 742 Combi had freight at the rear of the main deck as well as below. This accident was pretty much the end of large scale combis for long haul. I think that, now, there only short haul combies to remote areas like Alaska in 737s.
Didn’t KLM have a pair of 747-400 Combis operating until a couple of months ago, one of which had it’s retirement delayed and is flying pure freight right now?
The current situation especially with PPE being shipped means the aircraft max out on volume rather than weight. I know Aer Lingus are filling the holds and cabins of their 230T and 242T A333s with between 15T and 18T of PPE on PEK-DUB flights, the extra 12T of lift doesn’t make the cabin or hold any bigger! As such the A380 might actually be very useful for that role. Mriya can haul 250T internally or 200T on the roof, I wonder what she is actually hauling when full of PPE.