Fleet vs. Cargo Fleet
 

Yesterday as I flew from MDW to MSP I found myself browsing through the World Traveler magazine for the 5th time during the month and I as was searching for something I had missed the other five times I read the darn thing I began to wonder about the number of aircraft in Northwest's fleet.

Do the numbers shown on the fleet page in the back of World Traveler include Northwest's cargo-only planes? How many cargo planes does Northwest have in its fleet?

On a side note, I got on this flight Standby as my original flight was much later in the day. I ended up with seat 21-D on the A320. I think the was probably the first time in about three years where i actually walked past the wings, let alone sat back there. When one is always in the bulkhead or up front in first you tend to forget how many people fit on that darn thing.

The fleet is summarized here.

Basically:

B747-400 - 16 (owed + lease)
B747-200 - 17
B747-200 Freighter - 12

747-200 Freighters.....
 

A few questions about the NW 747-200 Fleet:

NW has announced that the 747-200 Passenger Fleet will be retired in the near future. Is the any discussion of taking a "Can Opener" to some of these Passenger Aircraft and converting them to Freighters in order to retire some of the older Freighters?

NW is about the only Airline in the world to operate 747-200s which use JT9D-7F Engines (other than some 742s operating in Iran). Are these engines any harder to find parts and spares for than the JT9D-7Q or JT9D-7R4G2 Engines on the other NW 747-200s?

By the way, NW has retired their Passenger 747s with the -7F Engines, but their six oldest 747-200 Freighters still run (to the best of my knowledge) with the -7F Engines.

Also, NW bought two 747-300s from Swissair several years back. NW got a really sweet deal on these birds, and (as far as I know) purchased them only for their JT9D-7R4G2 Engines. I was wondering if they used the JT9D-7R4G2 Engines from these planes to re-engine some of their existing 747-200s, or if these Engines were only used only for spares and parts?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.