I would like nothing more than to see the 747 back on the property. What a GREAT airplane! However, I doubt that it will happen.
FedEx dumped the 74's for a variety of reasons. Those included: busting up the "good ole boys flying club", getting rid of the FAs, a very mixed fleet of unique aircraft types, dispatch reliability issues, and last and probably most importantly poor cube utilization.
The only way to fully utilize the cubes inside of a 747 is to use built-up pallets of freight. That is why they worked so well for Tigers and FedEx charters.
However, Express is a different animal, and it is not possible to construct pallets of this nature with the time constrants of the sort. The ULD (Unit Load Device) is the only answer.
The ULDs used by FedEx are interchangeable between all aircraft types except the 727s. The 72s cannot accept the the AMJs (J can) or the LD3s. If a widebody trip is down graded to the 727 all of the AMJs,and have to be transloaded into SAA or Demi ULDs.
Our present containers are a result of years of evolution. The original 727s and DC10s were delivered with overhead bins in place. At that time we used a fiberglass "igloo" container. Eventually these aircraft were tube stripped, and this evolved into the present system. As a side note we even tried a type of ULD in the Falcon, but it was a good idea that just didn't work.
In reference to the DHL container metioned by a previous poster; I believe he is actually refering to the original ABEX mickey mouse system. These were designed because ABEX would not spend the $$ to install a cargo door in their DC-9s. These maybe everything that the poster mentioned, but they are also great wasters of space.
30 years and counting.....
