Pack n Send Blog

New Type of Air Freight

Posted on Tue, Dec 14, 2010

 With the development of unmaned aircarft  Boeing is at the forefront of using unmaned aircraft. Pack n send is posting this on our website so that  our customers have a look at the future of freight shipping.  We found this article in the  Handy Shipping  Guide.

US – This week saw a genuine first in the field of air freight, no strangers to logistics the Boeing Corporation faced a new challenge when it came to shipping one of their latest exotic creations across the country. Boeing have been developing the unmanned Phantom Ray aircraft for less than ten years, using entirely their own funding and with the intention of pushing back the barriers of what is possible using craft without crew. Primarily designed as a weapon of war the Phantom was constructed at the Boeing facility in St. Louis but will shortly undergo its first test flight at the Dryden Flight Research Centre at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

There remained the problem of getting a 36 foot long aircraft with a 50 foot wingspan the 1500 plus miles to the test site where it will undergo ground and high-speed taxi tests to prepare for its first flight in early 2011. Never ones to take chances Boeing staff decided it was necessary to ensure they could ship the Phantom Ray successfully to California and embarked on a test run.

The photograph shows the result, wheel out a NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a modified Boeing 747, never used before to carry anything but the space shuttles, and conduct a 50 minute flight carrying the unusual cargo in preparation for the real thing. Craig Brown, Phantom Ray program manager for Boeing commented:

"This is exciting not just because it's the first time that an aircraft other than the space shuttle has flown on the SCA, but also because it puts Phantom Ray that much closer to making its first flight."

The SCA flights with Phantom Ray are being conducted under a Boeing-funded, commercial Space Act Agreement with NASA. Phantom Ray is one of several programs in Boeing's Phantom Works division that are part of the company's rapid prototyping initiative to design, develop and build advanced aircraft and then demonstrate their capabilities. The new aircraft will be used as a test bed for the latest technological advances in on board and remote systems and surveillance equipment.

For information on more conventional freight and cargo shipping, please feel free to contact pack  n send at 713 266 1450.

 

Tags: Freight Shipping Houston, Shipping Houston