Gemini Jets 1:400 Boeing 747-8F: UPS Air Freight

Interactive cargo loading doors on sides and nose

The Boeing 747-8 is a wide-body airliner developed by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the latest and largest variant of the 747. After introducing the 747-400, Boeing considered larger 747 versions as alternatives to the Airbus' A3XX. The stretched 747 Advanced was launched as the 747-8 on November 14, 2005, for a market forecast of 300 aircraft. The first 747-8F Freighter performed its maiden flight on February 8, 2010, and the passenger 747-8I Intercontinental followed on March 20, 2011. The cargo version was first delivered in October 2011 and the airliner began commercial service in June 2012.

Its fuselage is stretched by 18 ft (5.6 m) to 250 ft (76.3 m), the longest airliner until the 777X-9, first flown in 2020. While keeping its basic structure and sweep, the wing is thicker and deeper, holding more fuel, and wider with raked wingtips. Powered by the more efficient General Electric GEnx turbofan of the 787 Dreamliner, its maximum take-off weight (MTOW) grew to 975,000 lb (442 t), the heaviest Boeing airliner. The Freighter version has a shorter upper deck and it can haul 137 t (302,000 lb) over 4,120 nmi (7,630 km). The airliner version can carry 467 passengers in a typical three-class configuration over 7,790 nmi (14,430 km). As of August 2019, it has 154 confirmed orders: 107 freighters, and 47 passenger airliners.

The 747-8 was the first lengthened 747 to go into production and the second 747 version with a fuselage of modified length after the shortened 747SP. The 747-8 was intended to use the same engine and cockpit technology as that of the 787, including the General Electric GEnx turbofan and partial fly-by-wire. In 2006, Boeing said that the new design would be quieter, more economical, and more environmentally friendly than previous versions of the 747. As a derivative of the already-common 747-400, the 747-8 has the economic benefit of similar training and interchangeable parts. Boeing firmed the 747-8 Freighter's configuration in October 2006.

United Parcel Service (UPS) is an American multinational package delivery and supply chain management company.

Along with the central package delivery operation, the UPS brand name (in a fashion similar to that of competitor FedEx) is used to denote many of its divisions and subsidiaries, including its cargo airline (UPS Airlines), freight-based trucking operation (UPS Freight, formerly Overnite Transportation), and retail-based packing and shipping centers (The UPS Store). The global logistics company is headquartered in the U.S. city of Sandy Springs, Georgia, which is a part of the Greater Atlanta metropolitan area.

On August 28, 1907, James Casey founded the American Messenger Company with Claude Ryan in Seattle, Washington, capitalized with $100 in debt. Most deliveries at this time were made on foot and bicycles were used for longer trips.

The American Messenger Company focused primarily on package delivery to retail stores with special delivery mail delivered for its largest client the United States Postal Service. In 1913, the company acquired a Model T Ford as its first delivery vehicle. Casey and Ryan merged with a competitor, Evert McCabe, and formed Merchants Parcel Delivery. Consolidated delivery was also introduced, combining packages addressed to a certain neighborhood onto one delivery vehicle. In 1916, Charlie Soderstrom joined Merchants Parcel Delivery bringing in more vehicles for the growing delivery business. In 1919, the company expanded for the first time outside of Seattle to Oakland, California and changed its name to United Parcel Service. The name change to United Parcel Service was to remind the company expansion that operations were still United under the same organisation and Parcel identified the type of business offered as part of its Service. Common carrier service was acquired in 1922 from a company in Los Angeles, California. UPS became one of the only companies in the United States to offer common carrier service. At first common carrier was only limited to a small area around Los Angeles but by 1927 expanded to areas up to 125 miles outside the city. In 1924, a conveyor belt system was debuted for the handling of packages for UPS operations.

In 1930, a consolidated service began in New York City, and soon after in other major cities in the East and the Midwest. The use of common carrier for delivery between all customers placed UPS in direct competition with the United States Postal Service and the Interstate Commerce Commission. The common carrier service was applied in cities where UPS could use the service without the authority of the ICC and state commerce commissions. The first city for UPS to use common carrier status outside California was Chicago, Illinois in 1953.

Air service through UPS was first used in 1929 through private airlines. However, The Great Depression and a lack of volume ended the air service. In 1953, UPS resumed air service called UPS Blue Label Air with two-day service to major cities along the East Coast and West Coast.