747-8 Freighter makes successful first flight!

Bah, I WOULD have reported this yesterday, but I guess I was still a little bit hungover from Super Bowl Sunday.  Congrats to the New Orleans Saints by the way.  Good for the team and especially great for the city.  WHO DAT??!!!!  Anyways, yes indeed, the 747-8 Freighter did accomplish first flight yesterday at 12:39PM PST, and landed safely back at Paine Field around 4:18PM PST.  The test pilots reported that the aircraft performed as expected, and handled just like a 747-400.  It reached an altitude of 17,000 ft. and maintained a cruising speed of around 264mph.  The official news release from Boeing and a webcast of the flight is available below:

News Link

747-8F First Flight Webcast

Photo Credit / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0