A350F vs 777-8F: Which New Freighter Is Better Engineered?

Why does the new Airbus A350F have no windows? It just made its first flight, and from the outside it looks like a passenger A350. Inside, it's a different airplane: no windows, a floor built for 111 tons and the largest main-deck cargo door on any commercial freighter. In 16 short chapters we take it apart and compare it with Boeing's 777F, 777-8F and 747-8F: carbon vs. aluminum, doors, pallets, engines, weight, payload and range. 00:00 Intro 00:12 One Family, 2 Jobs 00:49 Carbon Skin 01:25 The Windows Disappear 01:48 Belly vs. Main Deck 02:20 The 111-Ton Floor 03:00 How a 5-Ton Pallet Moves 03:28 The Door 03:59 Cutting a Hole in Carbon 04:27 Shorter on Purpose 05:01 The Wall Behind the Pilots 05:23 Fighting Fire With Nobody Aboard 05:49 Same Wing, Same Engines 06:23 Lighter Wins 06:53 Flown in by Beluga 07:24 The Freighter Math 08:00 First Flight 08:33 Same Name, Not the Same Airplane Key facts: first flight 29 Sep 2026, Toulouse (4 h 10 min, 25,000 ft) · A350F up to 111 t payload, ~109 t over 4,700 nmi, MTOW 319 t, door clear opening 4.31 m, 30 main-deck pallets + 40 LD3, 70.8 m · 777F 102 t / 4,970 nmi, 27 pallets, door ~3.7 m, MTOW ~347 t · 777-8F up to 118 t max structural, 110 t / 5,000 nmi, 31 pallets, 70.9 m, 71.8 m span (folding tips), MTOW ~365 t, entry into service expected ~2029 · 747-8F ~134 t. Fuel-burn claim (≥20% less vs competing freighters) is an Airbus figure. Footage: U.S. Air Force / DVIDS, Pexels · CC via Wikimedia Commons: Matti Blume, Gyrostat, Bruce89, montoya711 (Flickr), 4300streetcar, NewsInStar, small Jia, Antonov Company · BelugaXL photos: MarcelX42 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Thumbnail photos: Julian Herzog (CC BY 4.0), Alf van Beem (CC0) · Sound: Beeld en Geluid, InspectorJ, Fritz Schlüter, Jud McCranie, Wilfredor (CC BY / BY-SA / CC0) · Map data: Natural Earth · Music: original score · Graphics: original blueprint animations (schematic, not to exact scale) #airbus #a350f #a350 #boeing #777f #7778f #747 #aviation #cargo #aircargo #freighter #avgeek #engineering #aerospace #notthesame