It appears from accident reports that Boeing’s oversized freighter rival to the Airbus A300 Belgua, the 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter, or Dreamlifter, may have a promising future in the military as a non-precision bomber.
According to a US Federal Aviation Administration incident report filed on Thursday, N747BC, Boeing’s cargo carrier for 787 Dreamliner components, “on departure (from Renton) dropped a piece of test equipment and the object struck a parked vehicle.” Boeing confirmed that no one was injured in the drop, and that the damage was “minor” to the car.
It’s uncertain whether or not the owner has been identified. Boeing would only say that the car was in a shopping centre, "near the Ikea store", when the fibreglass test cone fell from the aircraft’s tail around 14:00. Boeing says the foible won’t have any impact on plans to have the LCF deliver the first 787 fuselage components from Japan to the Global Aeronautica integration facility in South Carolina in early January.
Apparently the LCF has also left its mark elsewhere near Seattle. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that a small Cessna on approach to Boeing Field was tossed about in the wake turbulence from the LCF on a parallel approach on 16 November.
Source: FlightGlobal.com