Originally Posted by
tdracer
The end of 747 production is rather bittersweet for me. I spent a good portion of my career working the 747, and my work on the 747-8/8F was probably the crowning achievement of that career.
It was more than a little frustrating to see the 747-8 be something less than successful (155 built). While I believe there is still a market for the 747-8F, that market is simply too limited to make continued production profitable.
Boeing made the decision to close the production line already before covid in order to open up other production lines. I’m sure that if they would have been able to keep it open they would in the current cargo market. Were it not that the suppliers have also changed to work on parts for newer aircraft.
These -8F’s have to work for the next 30 years as there is no other nose loading capacity. The AN’s are very old and the C17’s are too limited in paylod and too expensive imo.