=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2002/07/31/f= inancial1928EDT0411.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, July 31, 2002 (AP) Boeing 747-400ER takes first flight amid industry uncertainty HELEN JUNG, AP Business Writer (07-31) 16:28 PDT EVERETT, Wash. (AP) -- Boeing says it's the toughest 747 ever made, able to carry more weight a= nd go farther than any of its kind before. The problem is, the market just might be tougher. Boeing's first 747-400ER, or Extended Range, took its first flight Wednesday morning, starting a three-month test period for the first new 747 model since 1993. With no complications and in clear weather, two pilots and three specialists took off from Paine Field in Everett, flew to Moses Lake in central Washington and then landed at Boeing Field in Seattle about three hours later. Once testing is completed, Boeing will deliver the first of six 747-400E= Rs to Australia's Qantas Airways -- so far its only customer for the passenger version. The company has orders for nine of the freighter version. "I've been working on the program a couple years now," said Kurt Kraft, the 747 Longer Range program manager who watched the takeoff and the landing. "It's just a thrill. ... Everything went exactly as planned." Although no larger than other 747s, the new planes can carry 15,000 more pounds of people or cargo and can fly about 410 nautical miles farther than existing 747-400s, due to structural changes, an additional fuel tank and strengthened fuselage and landing gear. The planes seat 416 people in a standard configuration. Inside, the new planes offer larger carry-on compartments and more spacious interiors, similar to Boeing's 767 and 777 planes. Despite the Qantas order, Boeing doesn't have other airlines beating down its door for the passenger aircraft. The airline industry has been losing millions of dollars since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And Boeing has already had to push back the production schedule of another longer-range airplane, the 777-200LR, by 18 months due to poor economic conditions. "Right now, the market for any widebody airplane is very, very weak," sa= id Paul Nisbet, an aerospace analyst with JSA Research in Newport, R.I. "The airlines just aren't making any money, and ... there are parked aircraft that have to be absorbed back into the world fleet before there's really going to be much demand." Eventually, he does see increasing demand for the plane and potentially for the "quieter 747" version that the company is studying. But the 747 may have had its heyday. Airlines are increasingly interested in going from departure city to arrival city instead of from a hub to another hub, Nisbet said, translating into softer demand for the huge 747 planes. "It certainly had some very strong years," he said. "I don't think we're going to see anything like that again." Still, 747s hold a special place in Boeing folklore, not to mention Boeing's bank account. The 747-400 plane sells for between $185 million to $211 million, with freighters costing as much as $215 million, the highest-priced Boeing commercial planes currently in service. And Boeing believes there's a market for 1,000 or more of planes of the 747-size or larger in the next 20 years. Production of the first 747-400ER freighter is scheduled to be completed in another month with delivery to start October. Boeing rolled out the first version of the 747 in September 1968 and the extensively redesigned 747-400 in 1988. An all-freight version of the 747-400 was produced in 1993. On the Net: www.boeing.com =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 AP