MAIN DECK MUSCLE KEEPS AIR CARGO IN THE AIR

To the typical reader of Air Cargo Week, the freighter aircraft is a straightforward bit of aviation kit that needs little introduction. It can be a purpose-built aircraft that transports cargo on a main deck in a cabin free of the usual passenger amenities. Alternatively, it can be a former passenger aircraft that has been retro-fitted with freight cabin equipment in a conversion that sees the removal of its passenger paraphernalia to enjoy a later lease of life. A disappearing version of the freighter is the Combi-freighter. For most uses, Combi-aircraft have fallen out of favour in modern aviation. Able to carry passengers and freight, with a dual responsibility, they have increased loading times and are forced to keep to passenger schedules while still maintaining cargo operations. This results in a fundamental inefficiency in operations.

However, to the airline customer or freight forwarder, the freighter is often a life-line. They are a life-line when an emergency has devastated a region and rescue material has to be airlifted out in double-quick time; an assembly line faces a stoppage of vital equipment or machinery that must be delivered urgently; a load that must be sent to an airport without regular, scheduled bellyhold capacity; cargo that is simply too large or cumbersome to be placed in the belly; or a live race horse or F1 car that is wanted on the starting grid.

Freighters are in action every day of the year, often behind the scenes of the aviation industry and out of sight of the passenger and general public. Hundreds of freighters, including some of the most modern, are the foundation of e-commerce shipments around the globe. Without freighters, FedEx, UPS, DHL would simply not be able to access overseas markets or deliver their next-day promises.

Airline cargo managers will know that to stuff an aircraft in the same manner as an ocean container or lorry, is to maximise the advantage of operating without walking cargo.

Freighter history

The first flying of cargo, just eight years after the first heavier-than-air flight, took place in November 1910 in the US, between Dayton and Columbus, Ohio. However it is correctly known simply as a “cargo only” flight solely for the transport of goods as at that time, the later distinction between a freighter and passenger aircraft did not exist.

Although the earliest aircraft were not designed primarily as cargo carrying machines, by the mid-1920s aircraft manufacturers soon spotted the interest in flying cargo and responded by designing and building dedicated cargo aircraft.

A century later, a freighter generally features one or more large doors for loading cargo. Freighters may be operated by civil passenger or cargo airlines, by private individuals or by the armed forces of individual countries. A freighter will likely also have a wide/tall fuselage cross-section, a high-wing to allow the cargo area to sit near the ground, numerous wheels to allow it to land at unprepared locations, and a high-mounted tail to allow cargo to be driven or loaded directly into and off the aircraft.

The move to P2F conversions

As many people are happy to purchase a car that has been owned by another, aircraft owners are happy to turn to a former passenger aircraft that has undergone a conversion to a freighter (P2F).

According to aircargopedia, in a piece penned by Jacob Netz, a senior consultant at Air Cargo Management Group, “converting

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Directors: Norman Bamford • Dawn Jolley military or passenger aircraft to freighters goes back to the very early days of commercial aviation. In 1919, American Railway Express used a converted Handley-Page bomber in an attempt to fly 1,100 pounds of freight from Washington to Chicago. In reality, Air cargo did not pick up significantly until after WWII. With plenty of ex-military aircraft such as DC-3/C- 47, DC-4/C-54s on the market in the postwar period, it was not surprising that some of them were converted to commercial freighters. Later, other piston engine aircraft, such as the Lockheed Constellation and DC-6 (including the Freddie Laker Carvair) were also converted to commercial freighters.”

His observation is that when a dedicated passenger aircraft is almost “reaching its age” after completing its useful operational time in passenger service, it can either be scrapped or recreated again in a different format. Converting such aircraft into freighters is a way to extend the economic life of the aircraft. After all, they once represented considerable investments with a planned working life of decades.

Many cargo airlines choose to operate a first-hand quality converted freighter. These meet the high dispatch reliability required, are more economical for the company and can gain the same amount of revenue without using an expensive new-build production freighter.

“Historically, more than 90% of narrowbody freighters are converted aircraft. Mid-size freighters are divided 50:50 between production and converted freighters. Only one-third of the large widebody freighters are converted passenger aircraft. The trend is to increase the portion of the new production freighters in this segment (converted freighters are considered less fuel efficient),” he writes.

“Most conversions are to freighters, but few small size jets were converted to Combis and fewer to Quick Change (Dual-use aircraft carrying passengers in daytime and freight at night-time).”

Traditionally, production freighters are designated with the letter ‘F’. Converted passenger aircraft are designated with the letters SF. In recent years, three conversion houses use their own designations: BCF

– Boeing Converted Freighter; BDSF - Bedek Special Freighter; PCFPrecision Conversions Freighter.

What it takes to convert

Many types are converted from passenger to freighter by the installation of a main deck cargo door to access the now empty passenger cabin. Further upgrades and changes to the aircraft body see a change to its control systems and the upgrading of floor beams for cargo loads. Passenger equipment and furnishings are removed and new linings, ceilings, lighting, floors, drains and smoke detectors are added. This type of specialised engineering gives the aircraft up to two further decades of service.

These converted freighters have had most of their development costs already amortised and lead time before production is shorter than for all-new aircraft. At the same time, converted cargo aircraft will invariably use older technology. This can translate into higher direct operating costs than can be achieved with current technology.

A key legacy from their design and use as passenger aircraft can be that, as they have not been designed specifically for air cargo, loading and unloading is not optimised; the aircraft may be pressurised more than necessary and there may be unnecessary apparatus for passenger safety that remains after conversion.

The rise and fall of the preighter

In a curious throwback to the very start of commercial aviation, in recent years the ‘preighter’ took flight. A preighter, also known as cargo in cabin, was an aircraft originally intended to carry passengers but which was operated temporarily as a cargo aircraft by loading freight in the passenger cabin. The term is a portmanteau of “passenger” and “freighter” and is attributed to Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr; it came to use as commercial airlines responded to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to the precipitous drop in air travel caused by the outbreak of COVID-19, cargo capacity in the bellyhold of passenger aircraft accounted for half of global airfreight, rising as high as 80% on transatlantic routes. With the cancellation of many passenger flights and the corresponding loss of capacity in holds, existing dedicated freighter aircraft were insufficient to meet demand and air cargo rates increased.

Jets carrying cargo in the passenger cabin could be deployed much faster than existing freighter capacity as the industry fought to make sense of the early months of the global pandemic. With a loss of freight capacity and the urgent need to distribute massive amounts of personal protective equipment (PPE) around the world in the fight against the virus, hundreds of unused passenger aircraft were temporarily employed in a freighter role. Such aircraft also helped deliver mail, medical supplies, tools and other cargo during the difficult times. Loading and unloading a preighter aircraft often required more time and work by airline staff than would a dedicated freighter aircraft. As there was no dedicated system for loading, most of the process had to be completed manually by airline or airport staff. In some cases, it was reported that this took a significant physical toll on ground handling agents.

While none are being operated now as a degree of normality has returned to the industry, it is worth having a look at some of the memorable uses of preighters. In February 2021, British Airways used a B777 aircraft to deliver 1.7 million masks to Germany while Ethiopian operated over 5,600 flights carrying cargo in passenger cabins. Saudia’s first-ever commercial flight to Denmark was operated as a preighter service. With a great effort by airline planners and flying staff, an A380 aircraft was used for temporary cargo operations by both Hi-Fly and Emirates.

However, the preighter crown has to go to Korean Air which flew the longest nonstop flight in the company’s history as a preighter service in June 2021 operating for over 14 hours between Seoul and Miami. The B777 was carrying 15 tonnes of COVID-19 diagnostic supplies headed for the Dominican Republic and made use of both the cargo and passenger areas onboard.

This shows how sometimes a freighter, in whatever form, can be more than just a piece of flying equipment: it can truly be a life-saver.