How long can a cargo plane fly?

The Boeing 747-400F freighter is the all-cargo transport variant of the Boeing 747-400 family of aircraft. With the ability to take payloads exceeding 100 tonnes and a flight range of around 13hours, the B747-400 is ideal for the long-haul transport of large amounts of cargo with variants.



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Some operators fly “on demand cargo flights”, where aircraft will wait for new cargo at the airport were it had landed with the previous load. They may make “repositioning flights” (that are empty), but they do not “return.

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Cargo operators use passenger airports as well. Night flights for passengers aren't popular for a variety of reasons. Which means there are less flights for passengers landing and taking off during the night hours freeing up slots for cargo.

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That being said, most flight crew will have considerably higher tolerance for turbulence than most passengers, and crews flying freighters are considerably more likely to just ignore some light turbulence than crews flying passengers (the boxes* neither shriek, nor write nasty letters to the airline).

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It might seem obvious, but many of you ask about this: yes, the pilots prepare their own coffee and meals. Just behind the flight deck, we have a galley, containing several catering boxes with plenty of food, drinks and snacks, an oven and a coffee maker.

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A minimum two-person flight crew is necessary to manage the flight deck workload and protect against the potential incapacitation of one pilot.

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There have been an average of 1,200 almost empty ghost flights a month since the start of 2020, when numbers jumped at the start of the Covid pandemic. Most of these – about 80% – were to or from foreign destinations.

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Do pilots actually fly the planes? Pilots typically fly the plane during take off and landing. The pilot manually controls the plane until it reaches the required height.

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The Gimli Glider incident occurred 40 years ago when an Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of fuel at 41,000 feet, but the pilots successfully glided the plane to a former airfield turned race track for a safe landing.

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The cargo hold is pressurized and temperature controlled, with the temp usually at about 20 degrees colder than the cabin (at altitude).

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Nothing SHOULD happen, and it happens occasionally but usually with no damage. When lightning strikes an airplane, the current flows through the conductive exterior of the aircraft and exits through another conductive point, such as the tail or wingtip.

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When an aircraft experiences turbulence, the plane can drop or change altitude suddenly. This is why pilots always caution passengers to buckle up and stay seated when they are experiencing flight turbulence. The sudden movements put passengers at risk.

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Usually the pilots will leave the autopilot engaged. In small airplanes with limited autopilots, it is better to fly manually, but with more sophisticated airplanes the autopilot is a valid option in turbulence. Severe turbulence is actually very rare.

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While turbulence can feel scary, airplanes are designed to withstand massive amounts of it. A plane cannot be flipped upside-down, thrown into a tailspin, or otherwise flung from the sky by even the mightiest gust or air pocket, wrote pilot Patrick Smith on his site, AskThePilot.com.

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