1974 – 1989
The biggest Tiger…
An airfreight pioneer from its beginning in 1945, the Flying Tiger Line was still pioneering the industry in 1974 when it became one the first airlines to use wide-bodied aircraft for all-cargo service. Having developed a solid airfreight market around its efficient all DC-8-63 fleet, Tigers found that often it took two planes virtually flying in formation to meet the market demand along certain routes. This need for greater capacity directed attention toward wide-bodied aircraft, and in the fall of 1974 Flying Tigers placed its fist two Boeing 747 “freighters” in all-cargo service. The planes, which operated along a transpacific route from New York to Taiwan, were former passenger aircraft converted by Boeing to yield the maximum efficiency for airfreight. Each of the awesome giants carried more than 200,000 pounds of cargo domestically and 190,000 pounds internationally at 575 miles per hour over a 3,500 mile range. The converted planes cost $22.5 million apiece.