Federal Express “Fed EX”
FedEx Express was founded in 1971 as federal express and commenced operations on April 17th 1973. Federal Express was founded by Fred Smith in Little Rock Arkansas, due to financial failure Smith moved the company to Memphis Tennessee at the Memphis intl airport. The company started with fourteen Dassault Falcon 20’s on overnight operations to 20 cities. Services included envelope, package and two day delivery service. Fed Ex installed its first drop box in 1975 allowing customers to drop off packages near their home instead of going to their local branch bringing in 19,000 parcels a day in 1976.
In 1977 when the derulagation act was placed Fed Ex was able to expand into new routes and the ability to buy larger aircraft. So Fed Ex bought 7 Boeing 727-100’s. In the next couple years Fed Ex became the first airline to have a online management system for their routes, aircraft, parcels, etc… the system also allowed same day delivery. In 1980 Fed Ex added almost 100 new slots to its system. In 1986 Fed Ex acquired Flying Tiger Line and Oakland intl airport as a hub. So at this point they have been growing fast at this point. At this point I would like to Tell you that in this article i will be talking about some crashes that some people don’t like reading about so please be cautioned.
The 90’s were unofficially the Fed Ex area for these reasons, the name Fed Ex was born, Fed Ex’s website was created, and they opened up several hubs so please read. In 1994 Fed Ex the name was born and the company was called Fed Ex Express. Sounds good, the name right. I like federal express, but I like Fed Ex Express just as much. Also the same year they launched http://fedex.com/. This site allowed online business which brought more income to the company allowing more routes like… China for instance was acquired from Evergreen intl as a route. Fed Ex also opened Subic bay intl airport in the Philippians, Fort Worth intl airport Texas, and Charles De Gaulle airport in France. And in 2000 They officially dropped the name federal express. In 2001 Fed Ex signed a 7 year contract to carry mail for the united states postal service and in 2008 the contract was extended to 2013 and the USPS continues to be the largest customer of Fed Ex.So this was an exiting time for Fed Ex as you can see. In 2006 Fed Ex acquired ANC holdings for 120 million and introduced new sorting facilities. The new slots allowed service directly to UK airports instead of having to stop at Charles De Gaulle intl airport. In 2007 Fed Ex renamed ANC holdings as Fed Ex UK. Also Fed Ex acquired Flying Cargo Hungary Kft to expand in Eastern Europe.
When the late 2000’s reccesion hit it hit hard at home where the Fed Ex corporation was now struggling to survive. The air division had to delay delivery of many 777’s that were due delivery next year. For the first ever Fed Ex had to close down a hub. They closed the Subic bay hub and opend a hub at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in southern China. And in 2008 Fed Ex opend a new hub at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina. To get that hub Fed Ex had to fight against complaints from local homeowners and local businesses, but on October 27th 2010 Fed Ex opened a hub at Cologne Bonn airport as its central eastern European hub and it features a solar panel system providing 800,000 kilowatt hours per year. Pretty impressive right alright lets move on.
Fed Ex has many aircraft in their fleet and I wanted to tell you about them. The first aircraft they started with was the Dasault Falcon 20 and have since expanded to many aircraft like the MC Donnell Douglas DC-10 and the Boeing 777 Freighters. Here is a list of their current aircraft.
| Aircraft | Total | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Airbus A300-600 | 71 | |
| Airbus A310-200/300 | 53 | |
| Boeing 727–200 | 77 | |
| Boeing 757–200 | 48 (18 used orders) |
|
| Boeing 777 | 11 (27 orders)[25] (15 options) |
|
| McDonnell Douglas MD-10-10 | 58 | |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-10-30 | 17 | |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-11 | 60 | |
| ATR 42-300/320 | 26 | Operated as FedEx Feeder |
| ATR 72–200 | 21 | Operated as FedEx Feeder |
| Cessna Caravan 208A | 10 | Operated as FedEx Feeder |
| Cessna Caravan 208B | 242 | Operated as FedEx Feeder |
| Total | 694(+45 orders) |
and here is a list of of the retired fleet.
Dasault Falcon 20-delivered 1973
Boeing 727-100-delivered 1978
due to be retired 727-200
dc-10-30f
Here sadly are the accident reports
Fed Ex flight 705-this was an attempted hijacking meant to dive into Fed Ex headquarters in Memphis Tennessee. The hijacker meant to kill the crew and then crash the plane into Fed Ex headquarters, fortunately he failed, the crew was able to detain him until the got to the ground and was arrested the crew were severely injured and not medically unable to return to commercial flight.
Flight 647-This flight was a DC-10 landing at Memphis intl airport during a right crosswind. The first officer failed to properly line up the plane and slow it down before touchdown. The plane made an extremely rough landing causing the right wing to dip and stress the landing gear causing it to fail. The airplane veered off the runway and caught fire. All crew got off safely.
Fed Ex flight 80- stay tuned for a full article on this accident.
As You can see Fed Ex has had a great history starting with the small dassault Falcon 20’s to the mighty DC-10’s from Memphis to Honolulu. They have gone through troublesome times and through great ones from near bankruptcy to being the largest air cargo company in the world. The have gone through name changes from Federal Express to Fed Ex Express. I am glad I could share this article with you I had fun making it. I would like to tell you of some things I have been cooking up lately. I am writing an article about Fed Ex flight 80 and plan to start a new series called Flight simulator adventures where I will talk about flight sim and give lists about great flight sim aircraft and places. So please stay tuned and happy holidays!
Info gathered from Wikipedia, Fed Ex, CNN.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx_Express
Category: Technology
nice quinn
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