I currently crew a classic B747 freighter. It is stage 3 noise compliant, but as the Europeans crowd around their airports, it isn't good enough. Even the -400s will be a bit too noisy. The Rolls powered -400s at full power do not pass the lowered noise levels required at the London airports. Stage 4 is coming and FedEx is covering the bases.
The following is from the Brussels airport website:
http://www.brusselsairport.be/en/spo...aft/boeing/74F
747-400
Manufacturer Boeing Code 74F Year of introduction 1989 History Range: 8,240 km
Maximum takeoff weight: 420 ton
Wingspan: 64.4 m
Length fuselage: 70.7 m
Number of seats: x
Maximum cargo payload: 124 ton
Number of engines: 4
The Boeing 747 has a brother that was specially designed for cargo transport. The 747F (Freighter) has one big cargo hold for receiving containers and pallets. Airlines such as Asiana, Cathay Pacific, Korean Air and Saudi Arabian Airlines use the aircraft for cargo flights between Brussels and Asia and the Middle East. However, this impressive full-freighter is not allowed to land at or take off from Brussels Airport at night.
Website
747-400
For the British DfT report extract:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/aviation/e...wga2941?page=2
27. The Boeing 747-400 is the largest long haul passenger aircraft in service today. Although it continues to be manufactured in limited numbers, it is a relatively noisy aircraft based on a 1960s design and it largely accounts for the relatively high average QC score per movement at Heathrow. The B747-400 typically has about 400 seats (depending on airline configuration) and is rated QC/2 on arrival 7 . Many airlines use it in order to maximise the number of seats they can offer on each of the strictly limited number of night movements permitted at Heathrow (i.e. compared with movement numbers permitted at Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam), and arguably they are also encouraged to do this by the amount of noise quota available per movement. In short, the Heathrow noise quota is not incentivising the use of the quietest suitable aircraft as effectively as it could, and may possibly be doing the opposite due to the present relationship with the more stringent movement limit.
28. Alternative quieter long haul aircraft include the Boeing 777 and the Airbus 340, mostly rated QC/0.5 on arrival. Two of these aircraft typically have a combined capacity of around 660 seats, over 50% more than that of a single B747-400 (depending on airline configuration) and a combined QC on arrival half that of the one B747-400 (rated at QC/2). If the movement limit were raised, airlines could carry more passengers, using more fuel efficient aircraft with lower seat operating costs and lower emissions per passenger/km, and at the same time produce significantly less noise and disturb fewer people, as illustrated below.
29. Drawing on the sleep research 8 published in 1992, and applying the findings to the population living within the 90dBA SEL arrival noise footprints of the B747-400 9 and the B777-200, it is estimated that one B747-400 using the most densely populated westerly approach track into Heathrow would wake up about 353 people and the two B777s about 198 people (fewer if the two B777s or A340s landed in close succession).
Noise is an issue and foreign municipalities and civil aviation authorities are clamping down on the airlines and not the locals that encroach on airport properties.