747-400 pax/freight

[CoolHandleLuke]

Hello!

The other day while waiting on one of the V(ictor) positions on the ground in Frankfurt I had the pleasure of watching several Lufthansa 747's taxiing right past my nose.

It seemed to me that one of the LH 747's, which is obviously a pax version, looked like it already had a large cargo hatch aft of the wing.

It could sort of make out the general outline of the cargo door, the hinge on the top part of the door and also the metal thingy (sorry, English is not my first language) placed at an angle above most aircraft doors to avoid rainwater running down the fuselage to enter the door.

There were at least three 747's going past my nose but I only noticed it on one of them.

So finally my question... was I only seeing things because I was approaching my 10th duty hour that day :zzz: or does/did Boeing also build 747-400 pax versions preconfigured for an easy conversion to freighter at a later point in time?

Thanks in advance

Luke

[TopBunk]

Luke

I don't believe that Lufthansa have any combi 747's (where the aft end is for cargo and the front part for pax), so I can only think that you are refering to a normal pax 747.

All normal pax 747 aircraft have forward and aft cargo holds (and doors!) under the floor of the lower deck with the doors situated on the starboard side of the fuselage.

I'm fairly sure that KLM, for example, have combi 747's.

I suggest that you google for some photos and try to see the differences.

[B-HKD]

Actually Luke you did see some LH 744 in combi configuration!

Out of the 30 in the fleet 7 are combi.


However all 7 have been in a full pax configuration since a few years now and have had the doors deactivated and the opening mechanisms removed. (which of course can be reversed.

It is rumored that these 7 will be the ones to leave the fleet in the near future as they can easily be converted to freighters.

[Deltabravowhiskey]

Are you saying that 747's exist WITHOUT main deck cargo doors? Now how can you make any money doing that?;)

Check the KLM fleet, they use quite a few on the Asian runs (combi's).

[SMOC]

Photos: Boeing 747-430M Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net/photo/Lufthansa/Boeing-747-430M/0390000/L/)