Originally Posted by
compton3bravo
Where is the UK's major air freight hub - East Midlands - right bang in the middle of the country.
Not true C3B. EMA has the most cargo flown to/from the EU (thanks to DHL) but “the UK’s major air freight hub” is LHR with 1.6m tonnes of flown cargo (excludes the cargo trucked to/from the EU). LHR is ranked #4 in Europe by tonnes.
Originally Posted by
compton3bravo
Come on let us have a bit of realism here, it is not or ever will be a major airport, sorry for those in Kent who want employment.
At 10k freighter flights, I don’t think even the developers are saying it will be.
As for the commercial viability and as were using rough guesses, they could well generate upwards of £17m per year just from landing fees (aero charges). Add in parking fees for long-stay aircraft and non-aero charges (eg handling charges, storage, customs clearance and other related charges) and you could be looking at more than double that. Not a bad little business that.
As for B747-8F performance, at 85% of max payload and 30% of max fuel, it weighs 98% of its max landing weight and requires 2,300m of runway available. For take-off, at MTOW it would require 3,000m of runway so given MSE is only 2750m, either they need to extend the runway by 300m or limit the B747-8F to 90% of its MTOW. Even at 90% MTOW, you’re looking at either 15% of max payload with full fuel or 100% of max payload with 40% fuel (it can’t carry full fuel AND full payload) which would get you to Moscow or Istanbul. In reality, it would likely be loaded to 85% payload weight due to physical size & density of the cargo. So MSE can offer decent range from its runway even for a heavy B747-8F.
Just saying...