Boeing wins 747-8 freighter certification after two-year delay

After a two-year delay Chicago-based Boeing Co.'s new 747-8 freighter, the biggest plane it's ever built, won certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to enter commercial service.

The jumbo jet also received approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency, Boeing said today in a statement. Luxembourg's Cargolux Airlines International SA will receive the first 747-8 freighter early next month, Boeing said.

The certification caps a two-year delay to the jet's entry into service and puts the 747-8 ahead of the 787 Dreamliner, which has finished flight tests though it hasn't yet been approved by regulators. The jumbo jet was set back in part because engineers were diverted to the even-later 787.

Boeing expects to receive FAA certification of the 787 next week, with a ceremony scheduled for Aug. 26, said a separate person familiar with that matter who declined to be identified because the plans haven't yet been announced.

The first 747-8 delivery originally was set for the third quarter of 2009. Flight trials continue on the 747-8 Intercontinental passenger version, due to begin service in early 2012 with Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

The 747-8, with a stretched hump on top, new engines and the longest wings ever built by Chicago-based Boeing, underwent 18 months of flight tests that discovered some problems from the redesign, including flutter in the wings. The functionality of the new flight-management computer had to be scaled back to avoid further delays, with a software upgrade planned later.

The Dreamliner, the world's first composite-plastic airliner, is more than three years behind schedule. The FAA is reviewing its certification paperwork, and Boeing has said it expects to deliver the first one to Japan's All Nippon Airways Co. next month.