Originally Posted by
Less Hair
This is why I asked. The tooling for some of the fuselage parts got sold by some supplier already.
Not the tooling - the vendor closed the factory and is tearing down the building. My understanding is the tooling is still stored somewhere
until Boeing makes the decision as to putting together a new production line for the fuselage bits or simply pulling the plug. That decision will be based on Boeing's assessment of the future market for the 747-8F - basically is it worth the trouble to keep the line going (Boeing stopped offering the passenger version even before I retired 4 years ago).
Right now I suspect Boeing is trying to decide if the uptick in cargo demand due to Covid is going to last, or if it's just a blip.
At 6 aircraft a year, the 747-8F is basically a break-even proposition for Boeing - they'd need sufficient demand to get that up to at least one/month to make it worth the trouble to make new investment in a new fuselage line.