Boeing delivered the first 747-8 Freighter to Cargolux at Everett, Washington, on 12 October 2011. World Airline News identifies the aircraft as LX-VCB, construction number 35806. Boeing's own release, dated that day, said it was flown to Seattle-Tacoma for its first cargo load, bound for Cargolux's headquarters in Luxembourg.

Three weeks late

The handover was meant to happen earlier. Boeing had planned a ceremony for 19 September, and the first two freighters were scheduled for 19 and 21 September. The delivery was postponed at the last minute. Cargolux said the cause was contractual issues between Boeing, GE and Cargolux over the performance of the aircraft and its engines, and the Everett Daily Herald put the delay at more than three weeks. A tentative deal was reported on 2 October, and Cargolux's board met on 7 October.

World Airline News reported that LX-VCB left Paine Field quietly, without a formal ceremony. The second freighter followed on 13 October, leaving Everett at 12:45pm according to the Herald, which cited FlightAware flight CLX789. Neither source gives that aircraft's registration, so I will not say which one it was.

What Boeing said it was

Boeing's release gave the 747-8 Freighter a maximum structural payload of 147.6 tons (133.9 metric tonnes) and 16% more cargo volume than the aircraft it replaced, including seven additional pallets. It is 250 feet long, 18 feet 4 inches longer than the 747-400 Freighter, according to KOMO News. The first 747-8F had flown on 8 February 2010.

Cargolux was the launch customer. Boeing's release says it had 13 on order, ten from the 2005 launch order and three from a 2007 follow-on, out of 75 across eight customers.

The last of the line

The 747-8 turned out to be the final model of the 747. Boeing handed the last 747 it ever built, a 747-8 Freighter, to Atlas Air at Everett on 31 January 2023, according to AVweb. The first one had gone to Cargolux eleven years and three months earlier.

On my screen

On 27 September 2026 the BBBRadar desk unit showed a Boeing 747-8, LX-VCD, as CLX8, at 34,000 feet. That is a Cargolux 747-8 Freighter, but it is not the aircraft that was handed over on 12 October 2011. LX-VCB was the first; LX-VCD is its sister, construction number 35809, named City of Luxembourg, and it was already flying in September 2011. A photograph of it at Paine Field, taken by hitachiota on 3 September 2011, is one of the pictures that goes with this article. It is a period shot of LX-VCD, not of the delivery.

The label carries no route for this one, so I cannot say where it was going.

What I have not confirmed

I have not confirmed the date LX-VCD first flew: the Cargo Facts page that reports it was closed to me, so I only say September 2011. I have also not found a photograph of LX-VCB that is free to reuse without share-alike terms, so none is used here.

Sources