Shanghai planes to get freighter makeover

Shanghai planes to get freighter makeover    Shanghai Airlines, the ninth-largest airline in China in terms of sales volume, will convert two leased Boeing 757-200 passenger jetliners to freighter configuration. The planes, which will have 15 cargo positions and a cargo payload of up to 70,000 pounds, will re-enter service in the first quarter of 2005.
   Beaverton, Ore.-based Precision Conversions said that aircraft owner International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) has hired the company to modify the aircraft to handle larger loads. ILFC plans to convert three to four 757s per year in the future, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, chairman and chief executive officer of ILFC, said in a statement.
   The National Air and Space Museum’s new annex near Dulles Airport in Virginia is named after Udvar-Hazy, who donated a large portion of the $300 million it cost to construct the facility.
   Precision Conversions was founded in 2001 and began its first 757 cargo conversions last year.