Nearly 50 Years Of Flight: The Boeing 747SP
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- Опубликовано: 12 окт 2024
- Although not a big commercial success, over the years the Boeing 747SP has won the hearts and minds of travelers and aviation enthusiasts alike. It wasn’t exactly a popular aircraft compared to other 747s…. But, believe it or not, there are a few examples of this 1970’s-era jet still active!
For today’s video, let’s take a look at the 747SP, its operational history, and its current status!
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Back around 1982, I flew Sydney-LA on a PanAm SP. It was 6 hrs late leaving due to oil drooling out of an engine. When we finally got to LA, it had to do a low level go-around and I swear that thing climbed like an F16. I suspected the pilots were just showing off. I regularly flew on the Qantas SP’s between LA and Australia. They originally stopped in Honolulu enroute to Townsville and Brisbane. Back in those days, Qantas prided itself on being an all-747 airline, so they couldn’t fly to smaller markets or ones with short runways - Wellington NZ being a key one. I was told they did fly the SP in to Wellington for the 3 hr flight to Sydney. It would have been a spectacular takeoff but not terribly economic. Qantas staff affectionately referred to their 2 SP’s as Heckle and Jeckle. Around 1999, my daughter and I flew on one of the last Qantas SP flights on the domestic Oz midnight horror from Perth to Sydney, then on to LA in a 747-400. I was sad to see these odd beasts go but flying an SP and -400 back-to-back showed just how much more comfortable and quiet the newer -400 was.
Once the 400’s arrived the qantas SP’s saw out their days on the Perth Johannesburg route. With the retirement of the SP’s qantas gave up on this route with SAA flying this route mostly with an A340
I flew the B747SP for 1500 hours as PIC. It was the most fun airplane I ever flew. Long range cruise was around M0.85/0.86. But I’ve done Hong Kong to LA at M0.90 as well. It truly is an amazing aircraft.
I flew it for South African Airways in the mid 90’s. I echo your sentiments. Our standard joke was, how do you get an SP to cruise at M0.88? The answer was, you just reduce the thrust a bit😊
I'm a bit surprised that it's not mentioned that if not for the SP, several other variants of the 747 wouldn't have been possible.
The SP was the first 747 with the "hump" extending over the wings. It massively added to the development costs, as the whole section had to be redeveloped for it. In turn it made it even more difficult for the SP to break even. Which it probably never did.
All other 747 variants with lengthed top decks are based on it and otherwise wouldn't have been possible.
Every day is a school day!!! I can't say I've actually paid attention to that small nuanced fact despite having a photo book of all 747 variants back in 1996! I miss that book with the Northwest 747 on the front cover!
I've always considered it sort of a "loss leader" for the 747 line for this reason. In and of itself, it made no profit, kind of like a stripped-down car with no AC, radio, or cruise control used to be, but it paid for itself by being the template for more profitable stable mates.....
@simpleflying 6:27 I work for Pratt & Whitney and have been on both of their FTB’s. The stub wing is pretty wicked. Crazy! We did a majority of in-house development testing on the GTF on these girls. The pilot will hand over individual engine control to us in the back, respectively.
I flew on a PanAm SP in 1982 from Tokyo to JFK, nonstop. An amazing aircraft. It had a bunk room for the crew between Clipper and First.
I hold my altitude record, flying at 45,000 feet between AKL/LAX on the SP. The SP was a favourite with us (tour operators) as it cut out a stopover en route at HNL or PPT.
I saw the 747SP quite often as I was a regular visitor to JFK (and still am), AND in flight on arrivals to JFK runway 31R from Long Beach in the late 70’s thru the mid-80’s (mostly PAN AM). It was in the early mid 80’s when I discovered TWA had an SP (and even disappointed for NOT EVER knowing it, call it FOMO), when there was an unusually long bank to the LEFT as seen from the dunes of Long Beach, named BOSTON EXPRESS). I now imagine that it may have been a missed approach onto 31R, and made a low turn back over the Belt Pkwy towards Sandy Hook and back over the Long Island shore above Long Beach). It was like LOVE at first sight. I did actually fly on a PanAm 747SP between MIA ->JFK in the mid-80’s that was continuing onto LHR and FRA (I didn’t want to get off the plane, I wanted to continue flying to Europe on it). I sat just behind the wings and during final approach was amazed at the noticeably different look of the flaps when fully extended. There were less flaps on this version than my previous 747-100/200 flying experiences. I felt (speaking obviously an AV GEEK) so fulfilled FINALLY after flying on that single 747SP at that moment in time. And I can now say that I have flown on all the variants of commercial passenger 747’s produced other than the JAL 747SR🤦🏻♂️ ✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️
Very nice, thanks for sharing! Which 747 variant was your favorite to fly with and which one was the least comfortable and what´s the reason for that? Would be very interesting :)
I live in Vegas. The Sands SP flew out earlier this year. She's most likely stored. The only aircraft on their ramp are the A340-500, some 737s, and smaller VIP aircraft.
I think they might have scrapped it as they gave its registration to another sands plane an a320 ceo and I heard somewhere it was scrapped but not 100% sure.
@@teslaboyowasn’t scrapped, it’s on display at a Kansas museum now.
@@teslaboyoone was damaged and scrapped. The other was sold to a customer in Africa a few months ago.
Jeffrey van Doren. That sounds Dutch.
There is a 747SP offered for sale, located at Rolling Hill Estates, California. No price is quoted. It has a fat brown paint stripe down the side. This one is a VIP version with fancy bathroom and a bedroom even. Same plane? Could be. Offered with two spare engines.
Few corrections here: VQ-BMS was not damaged in Arizona. This happened during a hurricane in Lake Charles, Louisiana. A 737 was pushed into the 747 by the hurricane winds.
VP-BLK did not only have 50 seats. Initially it had 114 seats. After the airplane interior was redone, it had 90 seats. But due to regulation, only 65 could be used for takeoff and landing. They could’ve easily fixed this, but decided against it.
VP-BLK was sold to someone who plans to operate it.
I was there when it was destroyed. Really sad. One of my favorite aircraft to work on
I was the lead Flight Engineer on those two Sands SPs. VP-BLK, was sold. In fact, I operated the final flight into KMCI. The new owner plans to operate VIP charter flights after getting a maintenance C check. So there is still hope, the queen will fly again.
I only got to fly in a 747SP one time, but it was memorable. United subbed a 747SP for a 757 on a flight from SFO to ORD. As I recall there were less than 150 passengers, so it was not heavily loaded. After a rapid roll out, we took off more effortlessly than I had ever experienced in any other aircraft. It was like the way a helium balloon quickly rises when you let go of the string. Seemingly instant lift as we flew over San Francisco Bay. Special Performance indeed! I was fortunate to log about 200K passenger miles in United 747-400s, but the SP will always be my favorite. It is sad that so few remain in service.
The 747SP was essentially designed originally for one purpose: fly routes over 6,500 nautical miles long. It was introduced on the route between New York City and Tokyo by Pan Am.
Besides the 1979 oil crisis, what really killed the 747SP was the availability of 747-200B's powered by General Electric CF6-50's and more fuel capacity, which allowed 747SP range on a standard 747-200B fuselage. It was Japan Airlines that introduced tthis improved 747-200B, interestingly flying on the same route between Tokyo and New York City.
I had the pleasure of flying on a China Airlines 747SP TPE-HKG-SIN c. 1990. Between HKG and SIN, I think I was the only passenger in the forward cabin and Stewardesses Ms. Chen and Ms Lee kept my champagne glass topped up. The flight was very high up, 43,000 ft if I recall correctly, and the ocean was a deep blue with small clouds far below. I also flew on a South African Airways SP to Cape Town c.1993, also very nice, with clear skies for the approach over the city to (then) D F Malan Airport, with Table Mountain to starboard.
At that time, Tehran Airport was not IKA, but Mehrabad International Airport (THR). IKA Airport was opened in 2007.
Back in the 90s, QF used to alternate between the 747SP and 767-300 on the SYD-MNL-SYD and BNE-SYD-BNE routes. Sometimes, it would be a regular QF SP, on other days, it would be the Australia Asia SP.
Thanks for the Information!!
I flew aboard Pan Am's B747SP. And I saw the aircraft daily at LAX at the gates, on the taxiways, in takeoff and landing.
Flew on a PanAm 747SP from SEA to SFO. The aircraft originated from the UK then hopped down the US west coast. Personally, it holds the title of 'worse flight ever'. Something was wrong with the interior air pressure regulation, which resulted in many ear aches. What earned it the crown of 'worse flight' was every infant onboard was crying non-stop. There was a champion among these babies at the very back of the plane. The child screamed and shrieked as if there was a medieval torture chamber back there with the kingdom's best inquisitor. Seconds seemed like days. I did not know the human body could make sounds that head splitting for so long at volumes exceeding most military jet fighters.
The SAA in Johannesburg does a technical tour of the 747SP that they have. This tour is worth travelling to Johannesburg for it. I got to sit in the Pilots seat, in a fully intact cockpit, while they power on the jet via an APU and demonstrated numerous systems being tested. Before that point I'd gotten to climb through the avionics bay.
i love the 747s so much, not only because how iconic they are, but their flight envelopes still laugh at many of the modern aircraft of today. MTOW overload limit at 2.5G's for a 100 ton beast is CRAZY.
The 747SP of the Qatar Amiri flight used to fly over my childhood house into Bournemouth where it was regularly kept. Was the biggest aircraft I’d ever seen fly into Bournemouth, didn’t realise they were quite so rare at the time. Now we have A340-600s flying in for European Air Cargo, nice to see rarer planes.
5:16 the advantage of B747sp-38 it's due to the fact that in hot and high Conditions the RB211-524 in that type of environment due to the fact it doesn't have to use water injection seen on JT9D engine since its a more modern design
I don't know, if it was completely true, but it was said that the original plan was to name the 747SP, 747SB for “Short Body”, to match the fuselage, which had been shortened by 14.35 m. However, this significant change in proportions meant that the aircraft lost its elegant lines and looked like a fuselage that was too short on wings that were too large. This prompted a joker in Boeing’s development department to remark that “SB” stood for "Sutter’s Balloon", in reference to the head of development, Joe Sutter. This term spread through the company like wildfire and prompted the management, in a special meeting lasting almost a day of all the key managers, except of course Joe Sutter, to slightly change the name from SB to SP for "Special Performance".😂
Wow!
I didin't know this varient existed!
This is awesome!😅
When I lived in Israel, I used to see an SP at the Tel Aviv airport all the time. My favorite version. It was VP-BLK. Must have seen it 7 or 8 times.
The Sands SP is parked here at the ex TWA maintenance facility at MCI next to the “1011 Experience”. It’s great to see these two classics together when I fly out of MCI. There is even a BAC 111 floating around the airport.
the -SP is actually my favorite aircraft of all time (from a visual standpoint)
Where I work we have these little floats that you put items on and all of them are pretty long except one that shorter than all the other others and my av geek mind can’t help but see it as the 747 SP of the group 😂
Had the opportunity to be aboard SOFIA (N747NA) in addition to each of her prior liveries.., United as (N145UA), and originally with Pan Am as (N536PA). Sadly, she now sits behind several large hangers in the Tucson, Arizona desert - there at the Pima Air and Space Museum. The 747SP is truly an iconic aircraft.
I’ve actually flown on the SP many years ago on CAAC the Chinese airline from Beijing to Hong Kong!! And that was the old white knuckle landing at Kai Tak airport!!! Wow they flew so low over those buildings!! 😂😂😂 I’m actually shocked you mentioned it! I flew on one of the 2 they had. Amazing.
While I never flew on a B747SP, I was lucky to see one at LAX in the late 1980's (I believe it was a United Airlines aircraft). I was on a Delta flight taxing at LAX when we passed it at one of the International Terminal gates.
I had the experience of flying a South African Airways 747SP from JFK to Johannesburg in June 1978. While I distinctly remember noticing the shortness of the plane while boarding, I can't really remember any details of the flight itself, other than it was fine. Then again, I DO remember the refueling stop at Sal (Cape Verde Islands) in the middle of the night and the extreme security as we were deplaned, brought into the terminal, and watched over by armed soldiers before reboarding. Oh yeah, and SAA lost our luggage in Jo-burg for a couple of days!
It was always my impression that Cathay Pacific use the SP to fly the Hong Kong Vancouver route non-stop in the mid eighties. (As Cathay was not mentioned here, may be I am wrong). The ability to fly non-stop give Cathay a strong edge over Canadian Pacific (still remember that name😂) which need to make a stop in Japan, Korea, or Taiwan.
No they used the 747-200B with Rolls Royce RB211-524 D4 engines which were an a small upgrade from the B2 and C2. 1984 they started flying HKG - LON with the same setup although occasionally tech stops were required for fuel against winter headwinds. The first one with D4 engines was VR-HIH if I recall correctly.
The Dream Lifter LCF uses the SP tail as well due to the larger fuselage.
There was a private 747 VP-BAT based at Bournemouth some years ago, later registered N7477S.
Definitely a unique 747 and hope that at least one is saved for posterity
The SP that was operated (I believe) by Global Peace Ambassadors, for a time was parked at Harrisburg International Airport (MDT) I used to be viewable on the Google Maps satellite images, but was moved many years ago. It was interesting because when you came to the airport, you could see the top of the vertical stabilizer above the roof of the terminal building.
Ther is one 747SP parked in Tijuana (Mexico) airport since long time ago.
You missed the 2 Syrian Air 747-SP 😊
I joke that SP stands for "short plane."
The Sands Corporation SP left Las Vegas a few months ago never to return. According to a May 2024 Airport Spotting article, it was sent to Kansas City for part out and scrap.
I flew on one of those in the mid 80's with China Airlines. Very unique.
last time i saw 747SP in service was in kuala Lumpur, Malaysia operated by iranair in 2013
You missed Lion air- they leased one of SAA's! Flew to from London to Entebbe
I flew on one in 1991 from Harare to Sydney when I was 14.... Sth African Airlines
I seen the 747SP operated by NASA in October (i think) 2022 at an airshow in California at Edwards Air Force base
🙏
✋🏽😏 I want one but the fuel would likely bankrupt me.
I flew on PAN AM's SP from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia to JFK back in 1983
There is trijet concept 747 models at few airports in infinite flight
55 years of Boeing 747 in 2024.
There should be a A380 SP with two GE9X engines
Few months ago i saw 747sp at ICN in Fr24
worked on both the Qantas aircraft.
*Lifeboat Airlines has left the chat*
I actually have a model of the TWA livery VP-BLK!
I wonder if 747SP would be Twin engines jet instead of 4.
You forgot Saudia who I think had at least 2 - in the 80s it was the only passenger aircraft with the range to operate to JFK direct from Jeddah and possibly Riyadh
I remember them well, I think one was part of the royal fleet.
I used to work there a million years ago 😂
I'm glad they didn't go with the tri-jet option. That thing was fugly.
Better to fly with Boeing 747-8 in the future.
Chibi 747🤗
R.I.P Air Namibia 🥲
Make a video on Boeing 707 and 737-200 of Indian Airforce
Sam Chui has two flight videos on SP:
ruclips.net/video/p2ou0oq9Bz4/видео.htmlsi=qD-Ny9Se1TCtzxG-
ruclips.net/video/4j4hrSL6SPU/видео.htmlsi=Y3m-TlcxX5dSnYuZ
W plane, but ended up like the L-1011-500...
787 likes lol
Do you know where did Air China deployed the aircraft?
not much of a success
There is one on display at Rand Airport in South Africa en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Airways_Museum_Society