As with everything else, you're free to copy what FedEx does, so suck it up, quit your bellyaching, and get that cheap-wad company of yours to spring for some chiller boxes. It keeps everything at just the right temperature, even the chocolate ice cream sundays that we get. Oh yeah, I forgot....:rolleyes:

Well I guess the B777F's are a welcome change then.....not to open that can of worms with the jump seat issues as that has been, as I have observed on this forum for a while, a sour issue to say the least.

Maybe there is some confusion. The "chiller" on an MD-11 is a refrigerator. All FedEx Md-11's have them. We also carry coolers filled with ice for our beverages. We also have running water. Our crew rest bunks are terrible, especially if you are 6' or taller and they are hot and stuffy.

Bottom line is that you can run five MDs for the price of of a single new 777.

That makes sense.

Yes, it does. And, you can also run about 100 727s for the price of a single new 777.:rolleyes:

Or a billion sporks.


"Prof. Friedman visited China in the early 1960s and was taken by a government official to see a public works project. Chinese workers were building a canal. Friedman was struck by seeing everyone digging the canal with shovels. Friedman asked the official, "why no heavy earth-moving equipment?" The official said, "oh, this is a jobs program." So Friedman then says to the official, "then why don't you just give them spoons instead of shovels to create even more jobs?"

Who knows how much longer the MDs will last? Brown seems to be betting on the 74 and purple on the 777 as replacements.

I guess the MD's have lived up to a some what decent reputation in the freight division...not seeing those lift offs will be sad at least in my opinion the MD-11/DC-10 look the best at rotation...

I think you will still be able to see MD-11s at rotation for a while - it'll be a while before Fedex gives them up.

To answer your original question:

I took 130,000 lbs of freight from ANC to RCTP a while back and that put us at 590,000 for take-off. So, with a max of 630,500 for takeoff, assuming we didn't bulk out, we probably could have put another ~30,000 lbs. of freight on plus the gas to carry it.

The most I've taken from RCTP to ANC is about 180,000 lbs. That's a max GW takeoff with favoring winter winds.

So, rough numbers - I'd say depending on the time of year and actual destination, an MD-11 could probably take a max of 150-170K lbs. to Asia from ANC and 160-180K lbs. coming back.

Great info thanks!