Saw 747 ship 1308 (the first 744ER) at Everett in early-June going final checking a couple of days before it was rolled over to the paint shop. The new ER freighter was right behind it on the line.
Re fbw vs. strings - I knocked my Palm Pilot off my desk onto the carpet recently. Now it's fcuked and I've lost over 300 contacts (no, I don't have a PC at home & work wouldn't let me hot-sync), so now I'm going back to pen-&-paper because short of putting it through the wash, it WORKS in all weathers & under most conditions. Can't say the same about the high-tech bit of kit no more.
On another note, any correlation between recent airline bankruptcies and the majority of their fleets...???