Article on the rerouted funds:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just found nearly a billion dollars — $934 million to be exact — hidden deep in the Pentagon couch cushions. That money was supposed to fund Sentinel, a $77.7 billion modernization project for America’s aging nuclear missile system. Instead, it’s being rerouted to a classified project.
The 747’s higher fuel consumption and emissions made it obsolete and decommissioned from passenger flights.
So pimping one for 1 billion makes sense (/S) …So much for your ‘free’ plane. Qatari must be laughing their asses of. Got rid of the thing for free.
That is absolutely true, but in case of military transports, you’ll notice that the vast majority are 4 engine. It has to do with survivability.
Yes and No … For what I’ve read, a 747 is designed to fly on one engine. It can’t take-off on just the one, but flying it will (but yeah, I can see that 4 engines can makes sense for -some- military cases)
It’s the same reason why the Airbus 340 was made. Before the extension of ETOPS, many airlines who wanted to fly long routes over water wanted 4 engines, especially asian customers.