Hey BlueEagle your said "On delivery this will be the largest and most up to date commercial transport aircraft, with a possible service life in excess of twenty five years."
The problem might be that the market will surely look at the A380F arriving in a few years and carrying a 150 ton payload or thereabouts with what was from memory last reported to be something like a 15% saving in cost per ton per mile over the current 747-400F and both aircraft will have to be amortized over a very long time.
Now I imagine Boeing would have made some incremental improvements in operating costs with this latest derivative but the quantum leap effect of the A380 and its costs is not really being dealt with it seems. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought this sort of quantum leap cost advantage as the A380 has over the venerable 744 is what Boeing did to Douglas and their DC10's.
For my mind it begs the question of how does an operator of the new 747-400ER amortize its cost over its operational life in their fleet (say 18 years plus for example) when the A380 is also coming on stream in a few years and will be effectively operating side by side with the 747-400ER's for the majority of both aircraft's service life - the difference being the A380 will be operating at a significantly less cost per ton of payload per mile.
In other words the operator of the 747-400ER would be competing against someone operating a lower cost to operate (per ton per mile) product in the A380. Particularly in the Freighter where cost is perhaps even more an issue than in pax service - at least with pax you might have the possibility to "wow them with service" or more comfortable seats or something but with Freight....... it basically comes down to costs most times.
I am a fan of Boeing aircraft. I wish they would get their collective corporate management heads out from where the sun don't shine and get serious about building some really competitive ground breaking large long haul aircraft. I think the approach they have been taking is far more risky for them and the future of their products and their marketshare than using the available technologies to build the stuff they are really capable of building.