Paine Field, Feb 9 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Boeing’s 250-foot-long 747-8 freighter jet made its debut in the skies, and successfully completed its test flight. Boeing’s chief pilot Mark Feuerstein disembarked from the huge jet, and said that “It worked great, it really did. Toward the end, we did the obligatory photo around Mount Rainier — things were going so well.” At a news conference later, he praised the jet again. The test flight was of the duration of 3 hours and 39 minutes. And the test flight was completely trouble-free, so the pilots and the engineers were very happy with the performance of the plane.

Boeing already has 108 orders for the 747-8s jets. Out of these, 32 orders are for the passenger model and 76 for the freighter model. And the prices range from $293 million to $308 million. The jet is quite big compared to its earlier counterparts, as it is 18 feet longer in the fuselage, and has a 13 feet wider wingspan. The jet has a maximum takeoff weight of 975,000 pounds, however the 747-8 is comparatively petite, when compared overall to the European double-decker Airbus A380 super jumbo. The Airbus has a takeoff weight of 1.2 million pounds, though the elongation of the 747-8 fuselage is about 10 feet more in length than that of the A380.