The 747-8: Lufthansa-Boeing's Mistake

Lufthansa is more than an airline. It shaped aviation history and Boeing's fortunes, and the two share German roots. The story opened with the Boeing 707, which Lufthansa chose over two other makers. It did not take the standard aircraft: it asked for Rolls-Royce Conway engines in place of the standard Pratt and Whitney JT4A.

A long partnership

The 707 and the 727 shared a flight deck and a fuselage cross section, which cut training costs for cockpit and cabin crew when moving between the two. That made the 727 a good medium range fit. By early 1971 Lufthansa's jet fleet was all Boeing. Prof. Gerhard Hoeltje, a former technical director at Lufthansa, persuaded Boeing to build the 737 as a short haul jet made for Lufthansa, with a cockpit like the 727 and 707. When the 737-200Adv arrived with new avionics, Lufthansa, Sperry (now Honeywell) and Boeing froze the design of the mode control panel, which today's 737NG still largely keeps. Lufthansa proudly says the 737 was made by Lufthansa.

The 747-8 was another joint effort. Lufthansa wanted a bit more seating than its 747-400s. Boeing, whose last 747-400 was built in 2009, was unsure what to do next. It had argued, when the A380 launched, that the market for such big aircraft would not exist, which is why it put so much into the 787. Teams from Lufthansa, Lufthansa Technik and Boeing worked together on the 747-8.

The numbers

The 747-8 was officially announced in November 2005. By early 2009 only Lufthansa had ordered the passenger version, the 747-8I. By mid 2013 there were just 40 orders for it, with 13 delivered to Lufthansa and one to a private operator. The freighter, 747-8F, had 60 orders, and 32 had been delivered to Atlas Air, Cargolux, Cathay Pacific, Korean Air, Nippon Cargo and Volga-Dnepr. In all, there were 100 orders in about 8 years.

The A380 had 262 orders, past the often quoted break even of about 200. Its program started in 1994 and it got the name A380 in 2000. In a typical three class layout the A380 seats about 58 more passengers than the 747-8I and flies about 500 nm further when both are at maximum takeoff weight.

Trouble for the program

• Boeing admitted to losing an order for five 747-8F the month before.
• Two 747-8F were parked in long term storage at Marana Pinal Airpark in Arizona, because the cargo airlines that ordered them could not use them in a weak air cargo market.
• A white tail 747-8F sat at Everett with no customer, and three others were re-registered, which pointed to delayed deliveries.
• Lufthansa was thinking of replacing the 747-8 early with the 777-9X. CEO Christoph Franz preferred a twin to a four engine jet because of efficiency.

Lufthansa was the only airline flying both new jumbos, the A380 and the 747-8I. The cargo airlines had warmed to the 747-8F, but the numbers were weak and delivery problems looked likely in 2014. The 747, which began the jumbo jet era, had lost large passenger flying to the A380 and freight flying to the twin engine 777F. The Queen of the Skies had lost her airspace.