They don't let me do polls inside videos any more so you'll have to answer here - what is the best looking airliner ever? The 747, Super Constellation or Concorde? Or maybe something else? Reply below. 🙂
I worked this plane for many years as a technician with United Airlines in SFO after we got it from Pan Am back in 1986. The nose # was 8545 and my wife, who was a UAL flight attendant also flew this plane numerous times. SP was a great plane, back in the 90s we would fill the tanks full and fly it non-stop to Seoul. That was something special, back in the day!
I rode the New York - Johannesburg and back in the late 70s on SAA. 19 hours with all the detours they had to take at the time since they did not have overflight rights with any neighbouring country at the time plus a necessary refuel in Cape Verde.
I am on a flight to Tucson right this minute and will be visiting the museum this afternoon! Been twice before. The SP is such a cool jet and SOFIA is the best of the best!
Also, safety and redundancy cost money and is impractical. Manufacturers can only implement what the buyers (the airlines) and yourselves (the ticket buyers) are willing to pay for. If someone else offers a cheaper plane that does the same, yours won't be selling. And now China is coming onto the market in force.... What do you think that'll do to aircraft quality?
Great video Paul thank you. I was a flight attendant last century & loved flying on the SP. The most favourite position for cabin crew was the long galley between doors right 1 and right 2 which we nicknamed the 'sun lounge'. The views from the flight deck were also amazing especially a memory of flying over Madagascar at 41000 feet whereby we could see the curvature of the earth (sorry flerfers)...
I’ve been on-board many times when I worked a little on the conversion of this plane at my first engineering job at L3 in Waco, TX. They designed and built almost everything there except the telescope. We watched the first flight post-conversion from the flight line. Great memories.
I refueled thus aircraft over several years while it was deployed in Christchurch New Zealand. I was lucky enough to get a guided tour from the crew. For the geeks out there, it flew 12 hour night missions heading south from Christchurch to the Antarctic, the reason being, the clear might skies. Anyway, each flight consumed 160k litres of Jet A1, 4l per minute......awesome plane, sad it's now retired. Mark
Paul, I'm sincerely grateful for the attention to detail in your content.I get the feeling that if financially practical, you'd still make these videos even if you didn't make a single cent. I hope you have a booth at Oshkosh next year.
@@PaulStewartAviation Hopefully the algorithm rewards your healthy comment section. It's definitely one of the better ones. That's how forgotten history took off. It's gotta be really demanding though. I'm certain you'll succeed.
I was lucky to get to go inside SOFIA at NZCHC, where it was based most winters. Was amazing, what felt like the entire city gathered to see the aircraft was like at to learn about the several US aircraft that come to NZCHC each year
This plane for its final few years was stationed at Cristchurch Airport,I got to see it fly over my house when it came in to land it was such an amazing aircraft! On the final flight it flew low and performed some flybys before heading to the graveyard.
This was really fascinating! I'd never seen a glass cockpit in an SP, and the flight deck also has two bunks for crew rest. I can imagine how the people who worked on this aircraft must have loved it.
Enjoyed the video! My Uncle Nans was the Chief Engineer on SOFIA, so lots of family dinners were chatting about that amazing plane. Great walk through of it!
I worked at the L-3 facility in Waco TX, on a different program, when this ac went through the SOPHIA conversion. The addition of the telescope in the rear necessitated the installation of ballast far forward to cancel out the tail heavy condition. Although the gross weight of the aircraft with the telescope and ballast was far below, its maximum dry weight, the extreme distance from the center of mass change the moment of inertia about the pitch and yaw axis. This change surprised the pilot as they landed after the initial test flight. The aircraft did not respond to nose up pitch input as expected. Witnesses reported that it looks like a carrier landing without flare. The landing gear and especially the tires took the brunt of the impact. After the landing rollout, many tires had to be replaced.
I flew from LA to London on that SP in 92. Though United, I could still read Pan Am underneath, on the fuselage as I boarded. Very cool to see an aircraft I actually flew on. Note, the Kui in Kuiper is pronounced as you would 'sky'. Cheers.
The SP was configured for high altitude flight and was the highest flying subsonic transport ever certificated (over 45,000 ft.). One of the modificatons I recall was the installation of ozone converters in the environmental control system to reduce the ozone level in the cabin due to higher flight altitudes.
We're always in for a treat when there's a new Paul Stewart video! It's always nice to see the 747 too! There's a lot less new videos about it as it's slowly disappeared so it's nice to see another tribute to Sutter's amazing design. Thanks!
Fascinating video. I enjoyed the B-52 cameo and summer forecast for Tuscon :) Imagine being the guy that trips over the telescope and has to ask 'Anyone know where the other end of this purple wire plugs in at?' lol! Awesome video and plane, thanks for sharing! :)
Interesting fact, the "Sofia" was de-registered from the FAA aviation database on 7/18/2024 and is a 1977 Boeing 747SP-21 S/N 21441 and was registered as an experimental classification.
Beautiful bird. Saw her a couple months ago. Gotta say the inside was a sauna without any active A/C but will never forget seeing SOFIA in person. A must see if you live in the AZ area.
The reduction in fuselage as it approaches the tail is also to increase vertical tail / fin surface area to counter the shorter lever moment of the shorter fuselage. The split rudder is to allow the lower part of the rudder to deflect more than the upper part to limit the forces on the fin. The items being called wing fillets are actually wing to body fairings. Fillets fill gaps (hence the name), these are fairings to smoothly transition the airflow from body (fuselage) to wing and as a side effect give space to put various systems in parts of them.
Hi Paul.... Sofia, another " Queen of the skies" ❤️ Thankyou for sharing about such an interesting plane, and all her achievements ! She has lived a good life, and it's good to see she has such a wonderful home for here retirement 😊
That kind of looks like a highly classified program hiding in "plane" site. No doubt it was used as a flying observatory yet I wonder if history, at some later date, will find some of it's clients to be three letter agency's.
Stranger things have happened and it could absolutely be a possibility, but this being quite a costly programme, as per some astronomers I asked about this, it was probably simpler for them to use some already deployed satellites already in orbit, unless something very specific crossed their paths that needed to be observed in the IR spectrum that was feint enough that it could not be observed by other means on the ground. When the James Webb Space Telescope came online, it took up some most of the use SOFIA had, even if some specific capabilities are now, for the moment, unavailable to astronomers anymore.
@@zeroelus I just think it's likely SOPHIA had an intelligence gathering counterpart. C'mon, side scanning high resolution Infrared. Satellites have limitations. I'm guessing it fit a need. KH-11 was both tactical and practical (scientific).
Wow you'd have some stories! Very lucky to get to fly and work on a SP! The oldest 747 I've ever flown in is a few 747-400s with QF. :) Glad you enjoyed the video as I always love hearing from crews.
Excellent video Paul, thank you. I was fortunate enough in my career to fly every model of the 747, with the exception of the SP. I flew a couple odd ones like the LCF (large cargo freighter) and at JAL, the 747-SR-SUD ( short range-stretched upper deck). I had an opportunity to fly the Sands Corporation SP in Las Vegas, however I couldn’t negotiate a proper salary as a part time contract Pilot. I wish now I would have done it, in order to check the final box and complete my 747 journey.
17:47 I love seeing those Lufthansa airline seats on the upper deck. Not only did the Germans contribute 20% to build and operate this SP, they threw in some seats!
Fortunate enough to have been on board this aircraft in each of its three (3) liveries, Pan Am (N536PA), United (N145UA)... and NASA (N747NA). Got a chance to visit her once again there at the Pima Air and Space Museum during early April of this year - and Tucson was hot even back then! Being observant, you’ll notice that the seats on the main-deck are from United Airlines (90s interior design). The seats on the upper-deck are from Lufthansa’s interior motif. The Pan Am “Meat Ball” logo were once there on the seatbelts, but have all since disappeared. The Engineers panel is virtually the only unchanged instruments in the cockpit. A bit disappointing to see how she is currently on display there at Pima. Hopefully, this aircraft will one day get an up front stand, there on the tarmac..., in front of the hangers - and not out back there in the dirt.
FIRST COMMENT BABY! LOVE SOFIA747SP I have been to the Pima Air and Space Museum before as you know because I know you saw my full “Guided Tour” video there exploring the entire museum, not just dedicated to one aircraft, however, SOFIA was not yet on museum display she was located across the street at Davis-Monthan AFB in January 2023 when I visited she just arrived there 1 week earlier! Additionally, even if she had been there, I would not have been able to go on board as I didn’t have anything arranged in advance. I do hope to return to the museum someday, see SOFIA hopefully go aboard, maybe also go aboard the GE 747 test bed aircraft and the first ever B777 from Cathay Pacific 🇭🇰 located there as well! What a truly fabulous video mate, cheers 🥂 are definitely deserved! Caleb’s Aviation
@@PaulStewartAviation specifically, what I was thinking was, what if GEnx-2B engines could be retrofitted onto an existing B747SP? Or, what if Boeing could make a new B747SP Freighter, but with new wings and new horizontal and vertical stabilizers? It would surely consume a bit more fuel than a B777F, but it would have greater versatility because of the swing nose.
Thank you for this! We live near enough to Tucson and me, the avgeek, and my wife, an astronomer, really want to go see this plane! Just to add some more color, it's wonderful it was donated to the Pima Air and Space Museum, as Tucson, and the University of Arizona, have a very prestigious Astronomy community, there's no shortage of observatories around Tucson, and Arizona in general and there's a lot of participation in various programmes, like the aforementioned corrective optics for Hubble and involvement in the JWST and OSIRIS-REx programme, among others. Going to the surrounding observatories on visitors days, like the observatory over at Kitt Peak, and looking at the log/guestbook on some of the observatories is looking at the signatures of essentially all astronauts in the "space race" era. I'll stop it now to contain my exitement, but again, thank you!
I have some of the 1st stage fan blades from the JT-9D's. They were from 747-100's that were last flown by UPS, not sure what airline had them before UPS... From the blade size sitting on my shelf, its hard to put those into scale of the 8' opening in the front of the those engines. 😁😮
The upper exit door does not have an inflatable slide attached. It was mounted inboard of the door. The door was on a track and moved inboard and aft. The slide pack was then tipped/ejected into the door opening.
Another excellent tour video! Any chance of a tour video of the YC-14 sitting in the back ground!? EDIT: Nebber mind, I hadn't got to the mid portion of the video when you let it drop that there will be a future video on the YC-14. Love these videos!!
Dude! How do you get such good tours?!? As always, excellent work! As an astronomy buff, this aircraft has always been interesting, and never thought anyone but scientists and engineers would get a look around the aircraft. Thank you!
Interesting how there are the old United business class seats and coach seats and also Lufthansa business class seats,,,also was the Cathay Pacific B777 there that they donated to the museum
You mention fixing problems after every flight. But another important point is that the detectors for infra-red need to be cooled to at least liquid nitrogen temperatures. This gives satellite telescopes a finite lifetime based on the amount of coolant they can take. While the James webb space telescope did superseed SOFIA, it will run out coolant and just stop working
Is this shot on the latest DJI Osmo Pocket? I didn't know it had such a wide angle. The picture quality is very nice, it's good you switched from GoPro...and already couple videos ago, I know, but I noticed it now. Also it feels like you come to the airplane with more research done before hand now, footage reflects that. The quality of your work is steadily rising, that's what I'm trying to say. Thank you!
I worked in the final assembly area for the 747 in Everett starting in 1979 as a functional test technician. Although I didn't work on this modification, this brings back many memories, since I did work on many SP's. I recall, when working on Braniff, that every seat was covered in real leather. Walking into the tube was quite the experience since it smelled like a new car.
Fantastic. One, I always loved the 747SP (baby 747) as I thought it was a great idea, and a cool looking ship. Two, SOFIA is an historic aircraft and I'm glad she's preserved. How many 744SP's are atill around?
Retiring this bird due to funding is absolutely ridiculous. Cut the migrant funding stupidity, and fly this beautiful scientific instrument. Our country is going to hell *rapidly*, and it makes me sadder and sadder every day. Our founding fathers are rolling in their graves.
Without migrants, who will do the jobs that American's don't want to do? Here in Australia we're reliant on migrants (mostly from India) to provide doctors, nurses, pharmacists and dentists because local Aussies are too lazy to study hard and complete university degrees. Just playing the devils advocate. 🤷♂️
They don't let me do polls inside videos any more so you'll have to answer here - what is the best looking airliner ever? The 747, Super Constellation or Concorde? Or maybe something else? Reply below. 🙂
Concorde, by an absolute mile
747 - it the queen of the skies forever
MD-80 has always looked cool to me
Concorde followed closely by the VC-10 and Super VC-10
Concorde, despite having worked on the 747 for 40 years.
I worked this plane for many years as a technician with United Airlines in SFO after we got it from Pan Am back in 1986. The nose # was 8545 and my wife, who was a UAL flight attendant also flew this plane numerous times. SP was a great plane, back in the 90s we would fill the tanks full and fly it non-stop to Seoul. That was something special, back in the day!
@@joepatroni9792 Way to go Joe!🙂👍🙂
I rode the New York - Johannesburg and back in the late 70s on SAA. 19 hours with all the detours they had to take at the time since they did not have overflight rights with any neighbouring country at the time plus a necessary refuel in Cape Verde.
You should record some stories of your experiences working on it, I bet many people here would love to hear them!
I am on a flight to Tucson right this minute and will be visiting the museum this afternoon! Been twice before. The SP is such a cool jet and SOFIA is the best of the best!
Enjoy!
"Safety was a priority for Boeing back in that era" - I LOVE IT! Telling it how it is! 👌👍🙂
“Safety was always a priority for Boeing.. back in that era”
Yooo 😢
Yeh :(
sad truth
The irony of that comment is that Boeing's safety record in the last 20 years is better than it ever has been. Not defending Boeing but it is a fact.
Also, safety and redundancy cost money and is impractical. Manufacturers can only implement what the buyers (the airlines) and yourselves (the ticket buyers) are willing to pay for. If someone else offers a cheaper plane that does the same, yours won't be selling.
And now China is coming onto the market in force.... What do you think that'll do to aircraft quality?
Great video Paul thank you. I was a flight attendant last century & loved flying on the SP. The most favourite position for cabin crew was the long galley between doors right 1 and right 2 which we nicknamed the 'sun lounge'. The views from the flight deck were also amazing especially a memory of flying over Madagascar at 41000 feet whereby we could see the curvature of the earth (sorry flerfers)...
The flat earth society recently announced that they now have members from all around the globe. 😉😂
I’ve been on-board many times when I worked a little on the conversion of this plane at my first engineering job at L3 in Waco, TX. They designed and built almost everything there except the telescope. We watched the first flight post-conversion from the flight line. Great memories.
I refueled thus aircraft over several years while it was deployed in Christchurch New Zealand.
I was lucky enough to get a guided tour from the crew.
For the geeks out there, it flew 12 hour night missions heading south from Christchurch to the Antarctic, the reason being, the clear might skies.
Anyway, each flight consumed 160k litres of Jet A1, 4l per minute......awesome plane, sad it's now retired.
Mark
Yes I recall seeing her several times while flying into and out of CHC
In my opinion, this is one of the best RUclips channels.
Thanks!
Paul, I'm sincerely grateful for the attention to detail in your content.I get the feeling that if financially practical, you'd still make these videos even if you didn't make a single cent. I hope you have a booth at Oshkosh next year.
Thanks! Oh I barely (if at all)make a profit after the advertising revenue covers the costs of the trips :)
@@PaulStewartAviation Hopefully the algorithm rewards your healthy comment section. It's definitely one of the better ones. That's how forgotten history took off. It's gotta be really demanding though. I'm certain you'll succeed.
happy to see the SP getting some love!
I was lucky to get to go inside SOFIA at NZCHC, where it was based most winters. Was amazing, what felt like the entire city gathered to see the aircraft was like at to learn about the several US aircraft that come to NZCHC each year
This plane for its final few years was stationed at Cristchurch Airport,I got to see it fly over my house when it came in to land it was such an amazing aircraft! On the final flight it flew low and performed some flybys before heading to the graveyard.
This was really fascinating! I'd never seen a glass cockpit in an SP, and the flight deck also has two bunks for crew rest.
I can imagine how the people who worked on this aircraft must have loved it.
Enjoyed the video! My Uncle Nans was the Chief Engineer on SOFIA, so lots of family dinners were chatting about that amazing plane. Great walk through of it!
I worked at the L-3 facility in Waco TX, on a different program, when this ac went through the SOPHIA conversion.
The addition of the telescope in the rear necessitated the installation of ballast far forward to cancel out the tail heavy condition. Although the gross weight of the aircraft with the telescope and ballast was far below, its maximum dry weight, the extreme distance from the center of mass change the moment of inertia about the pitch and yaw axis. This change surprised the pilot as they landed after the initial test flight. The aircraft did not respond to nose up pitch input as expected. Witnesses reported that it looks like a carrier landing without flare. The landing gear and especially the tires took the brunt of the impact. After the landing rollout, many tires had to be replaced.
Awesome! Have watched a couple of UK documentaries on this aeroplane, super interesting and amazing tech too.
Bruuuuuuuh that model of the Sofia by the telescope 😮🤤🤤
Fantastic stuff mate, can't beat the queen!
Great show thanks for your hard work
Masterpiece,
Fascinating.
Thanks for the detailed Tour
Glad you enjoyed it!
I flew from LA to London on that SP in 92. Though United, I could still read Pan Am underneath, on the fuselage as I boarded. Very cool to see an aircraft I actually flew on. Note, the Kui in Kuiper is pronounced as you would 'sky'. Cheers.
Thanks! I guessed I made a mess of the pronunciation haha
@@PaulStewartAviation I hope I was gentle.
One the best videos yet.
Fantastic video Paul! Thank you for sharing this one of a kind plane. SP was certainly a game changer in its day.
Couldn't agree more!
Excellent report! Thanks for this one - very interesting content! 👍😎
The SP was configured for high altitude flight and was the highest flying subsonic transport ever certificated (over 45,000 ft.). One of the modificatons I recall was the installation of ozone converters in the environmental control system to reduce the ozone level in the cabin due to higher flight altitudes.
GO 747SP GOOOO💌
We're always in for a treat when there's a new Paul Stewart video! It's always nice to see the 747 too! There's a lot less new videos about it as it's slowly disappeared so it's nice to see another tribute to Sutter's amazing design. Thanks!
More to come!
Fascinating video. I enjoyed the B-52 cameo and summer forecast for Tuscon :)
Imagine being the guy that trips over the telescope and has to ask 'Anyone know where the other end of this purple wire plugs in at?' lol!
Awesome video and plane, thanks for sharing! :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Interesting fact, the "Sofia" was de-registered from the FAA aviation database on 7/18/2024 and is a 1977 Boeing 747SP-21 S/N 21441 and was registered as an experimental classification.
Beautiful bird. Saw her a couple months ago. Gotta say the inside was a sauna without any active A/C but will never forget seeing SOFIA in person. A must see if you live in the AZ area.
The reduction in fuselage as it approaches the tail is also to increase vertical tail / fin surface area to counter the shorter lever moment of the shorter fuselage. The split rudder is to allow the lower part of the rudder to deflect more than the upper part to limit the forces on the fin.
The items being called wing fillets are actually wing to body fairings. Fillets fill gaps (hence the name), these are fairings to smoothly transition the airflow from body (fuselage) to wing and as a side effect give space to put various systems in parts of them.
Hi Paul....
Sofia, another " Queen of the skies" ❤️
Thankyou for sharing about such an interesting plane, and all her achievements !
She has lived a good life, and it's good to see she has such a wonderful home for here retirement 😊
Glad you enjoyed it
Exelente vídio Paul.
Salu2 dsd San Luis, Argentina 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷
Another great video.. thanks Paul !!🤘
Glad you liked it!
Great video!
The SP is my favorite 747, it looks sooo cute with how short it is.
Thanks Paul.👍👍👍👍✈🍺
Thank you! You are part of preserving history.
Thanks! Yea that’s what I hope to do! I hope you’ve seen my Super Connie footage as that’s certainly something I want to preserve too.
@@PaulStewartAviation Yes indeed! Your channel is a favorite! More power to you❤
That kind of looks like a highly classified program hiding in "plane" site. No doubt it was used as a flying observatory yet I wonder if history, at some later date, will find some of it's clients to be three letter agency's.
Stranger things have happened and it could absolutely be a possibility, but this being quite a costly programme, as per some astronomers I asked about this, it was probably simpler for them to use some already deployed satellites already in orbit, unless something very specific crossed their paths that needed to be observed in the IR spectrum that was feint enough that it could not be observed by other means on the ground.
When the James Webb Space Telescope came online, it took up some most of the use SOFIA had, even if some specific capabilities are now, for the moment, unavailable to astronomers anymore.
@@zeroelus I just think it's likely SOPHIA had an intelligence gathering counterpart. C'mon, side scanning high resolution Infrared. Satellites have limitations. I'm guessing it fit a need. KH-11 was both tactical and practical (scientific).
Thanks. I was a telescope opr. on that project for 5 years. I hadn't known a lot about what this video explains about the aircraft itself.
Wow you'd have some stories! Very lucky to get to fly and work on a SP! The oldest 747 I've ever flown in is a few 747-400s with QF. :) Glad you enjoyed the video as I always love hearing from crews.
Great tour Paul!
Great video Paul! I've been waiting for this ever since I saw you post photos of it at PIMA. Thanks!
747 SP is the coolest 747 variant
My dad was on this project when he was at nasa. Steve Bragg ❤
He did a great job!
The 748 has horrendous proportions, the 747-400 is by far the best looking
Agree to disagree there 😂
Excellent video Paul, thank you.
I was fortunate enough in my career to fly every model of the 747, with the exception of the SP.
I flew a couple odd ones like the LCF (large cargo freighter) and at JAL, the 747-SR-SUD ( short range-stretched upper deck).
I had an opportunity to fly the Sands Corporation SP in Las Vegas, however I couldn’t negotiate a proper salary as a part time contract Pilot.
I wish now I would have done it, in order to check the final box and complete my 747 journey.
Glad you enjoyed it
17:47 I love seeing those Lufthansa airline seats on the upper deck. Not only did the Germans contribute 20% to build and operate this SP, they threw in some seats!
That truly is a unique and weird flightdeck, in between an analogue and glass and the layout of the screens and MCP also not standard
Thank you
You're welcome
This is great video! Keep it up! 🙂
Fortunate enough to have been on board this aircraft in each of its three (3) liveries, Pan Am (N536PA), United (N145UA)... and NASA (N747NA). Got a chance to visit her once again there at the Pima Air and Space Museum during early April of this year - and Tucson was hot even back then! Being observant, you’ll notice that the seats on the main-deck are from United Airlines (90s interior design). The seats on the upper-deck are from Lufthansa’s interior motif. The Pan Am “Meat Ball” logo were once there on the seatbelts, but have all since disappeared. The Engineers panel is virtually the only unchanged instruments in the cockpit. A bit disappointing to see how she is currently on display there at Pima. Hopefully, this aircraft will one day get an up front stand, there on the tarmac..., in front of the hangers - and not out back there in the dirt.
I'd love to tour that aircraft. I now have another reason to return to Pima Air Museum.
FIRST COMMENT BABY! LOVE SOFIA747SP
I have been to the Pima Air and Space Museum before as you know because I know you saw my full “Guided Tour” video there exploring the entire museum, not just dedicated to one aircraft, however, SOFIA was not yet on museum display she was located across the street at Davis-Monthan AFB in January 2023 when I visited she just arrived there 1 week earlier! Additionally, even if she had been there, I would not have been able to go on board as I didn’t have anything arranged in advance. I do hope to return to the museum someday, see SOFIA hopefully go aboard, maybe also go aboard the GE 747 test bed aircraft and the first ever B777 from Cathay Pacific 🇭🇰 located there as well!
What a truly fabulous video mate, cheers 🥂 are definitely deserved!
Caleb’s Aviation
My brother sent the picture of 747SP from 2018 for NASA intership.
4:44 The YC-14... That was a cool aircraft that never was.... 👍🤠
Imagine how awesome this plane would be with four GEnx-2B engines 🤩 it would make for a very versatile freighter
Isn't that the standard 747-8F that you're talking about? Albeit with a longer fuselage.
@@PaulStewartAviation specifically, what I was thinking was, what if GEnx-2B engines could be retrofitted onto an existing B747SP? Or, what if Boeing could make a new B747SP Freighter, but with new wings and new horizontal and vertical stabilizers? It would surely consume a bit more fuel than a B777F, but it would have greater versatility because of the swing nose.
I flew on these back in the 80s. You could fly from coast to coast (west to east) in just under 4 hours if the winds were favorable.
Thank you for this! We live near enough to Tucson and me, the avgeek, and my wife, an astronomer, really want to go see this plane!
Just to add some more color, it's wonderful it was donated to the Pima Air and Space Museum, as Tucson, and the University of Arizona, have a very prestigious Astronomy community, there's no shortage of observatories around Tucson, and Arizona in general and there's a lot of participation in various programmes, like the aforementioned corrective optics for Hubble and involvement in the JWST and OSIRIS-REx programme, among others. Going to the surrounding observatories on visitors days, like the observatory over at Kitt Peak, and looking at the log/guestbook on some of the observatories is looking at the signatures of essentially all astronauts in the "space race" era.
I'll stop it now to contain my exitement, but again, thank you!
Good old 747 SP! ✈️🔭🫡🔥🔝
She's a beauty :)
Did you use it to look for a hair on that cueball?
😅 love seeing your uploads and can’t wait for the STOL in the background!
All love!
I have some of the 1st stage fan blades from the JT-9D's. They were from 747-100's that were last flown by UPS, not sure what airline had them before UPS... From the blade size sitting on my shelf, its hard to put those into scale of the 8' opening in the front of the those engines. 😁😮
The upper exit door does not have an inflatable slide attached. It was mounted inboard of the door. The door was on a track and moved inboard and aft. The slide pack was then tipped/ejected into the door opening.
Apologies, I should have used clearer wording.
Ooh. Saw that girl make some low passes out at Edwards a couple of years back. I'm sure that wasn't the point, but it was neat.
I flew from London to LA in that very aircraft in September 1992 when it was with United Airlines AND I’m an astronomy nut!
Another excellent tour video! Any chance of a tour video of the YC-14 sitting in the back ground!?
EDIT: Nebber mind, I hadn't got to the mid portion of the video when you let it drop that there will be a future video on the YC-14. Love these videos!!
I was at Pima last year and the SOFIA wasn't on display yet. I'll have to go check it out. Thanks!
Saftey was always a priority for Boeing, back in that era 😂🔥🔥🔥
SP 😍
Dude! How do you get such good tours?!? As always, excellent work! As an astronomy buff, this aircraft has always been interesting, and never thought anyone but scientists and engineers would get a look around the aircraft. Thank you!
Interesting how there are the old United business class seats and coach seats and also Lufthansa business class seats,,,also was the Cathay Pacific B777 there that they donated to the museum
It’s odd that the aircraft is retired now as it seems to have been very well cared for and highly updated for its time.
Not much need for such an expensive aircraft, though.
@@PaulStewartAviation I get it but the fact is, it’s already built and ready to be utilized.
On the “Tall Tales with Taco Bell” channel, there’s an interview with Chris Farinha, who was FE on SOPHIA. Very informative!
I need to go back there
I'd love to have this and retrofit it with a glass cockpit and a newer fuel efficient engine
Ahhh this does have a glass cockpit! 😄
You mention fixing problems after every flight. But another important point is that the detectors for infra-red need to be cooled to at least liquid nitrogen temperatures. This gives satellite telescopes a finite lifetime based on the amount of coolant they can take.
While the James webb space telescope did superseed SOFIA, it will run out coolant and just stop working
thanks for the extra info
Actually, the instruments are cooled to liquid helium temperatures which made it challenging to source enough helium on some foreign deployments.
My physics teacher was on this for a bit!
Is this shot on the latest DJI Osmo Pocket? I didn't know it had such a wide angle. The picture quality is very nice, it's good you switched from GoPro...and already couple videos ago, I know, but I noticed it now. Also it feels like you come to the airplane with more research done before hand now, footage reflects that. The quality of your work is steadily rising, that's what I'm trying to say. Thank you!
Cheers. Yep the dji but I’ve used the wide angle lens inside the aircraft.
Love these unicorn aircraft.
I worked in the final assembly area for the 747 in Everett starting in 1979 as a functional test technician. Although I didn't work on this modification, this brings back many memories, since I did work on many SP's. I recall, when working on Braniff, that every seat was covered in real leather. Walking into the tube was quite the experience since it smelled like a new car.
United got an old Braniff 747SP nose number 8750, I remember that one because the 'chillers' in the upper deck needed freon gas in them.
You know the dash 8s look at the SP and think “look, mini me!” 😂
Fantastic. One, I always loved the 747SP (baby 747) as I thought it was a great idea, and a cool looking ship. Two, SOFIA is an historic aircraft and I'm glad she's preserved.
How many 744SP's are atill around?
I answer that in the video - just 2 747SPs still flying :)
@PaulStewartAviation Yes you said that. I mean around as in preserved
Its funny how small the b52 looks once you put a single modern large engine on it
Extremely interesting! Especially stoned.
Too bad they don't make SP's anymore, if I was filthy rich and wanted a proper business jet, I think I would've ordered one this way.
Great video. Too bad you can't rent this out for LAN gaming.
Were those Lufthansa logos on the passenger seats in the second deck?
Yep
How about rotary eg chinook ch46 etc
Boeing is a fool for ceasing production of the 747!
So sad they stopped using this 💔
I can’t find your YC-14 video? Would love to see it
Oh it’s not done yet :)
Ahh no way orbis is parked in storage now ???
Did the Russians have anything comparable? What technology did they have for this type of science?
Good question! Not sure myself but hopefully someone else knows
on god I thought you were noel phillips
What a handsome devil
I KNEW IT
This is cursed 3:13
zamzam water
Retiring this bird due to funding is absolutely ridiculous. Cut the migrant funding stupidity, and fly this beautiful scientific instrument. Our country is going to hell *rapidly*, and it makes me sadder and sadder every day. Our founding fathers are rolling in their graves.
Without migrants, who will do the jobs that American's don't want to do? Here in Australia we're reliant on migrants (mostly from India) to provide doctors, nurses, pharmacists and dentists because local Aussies are too lazy to study hard and complete university degrees. Just playing the devils advocate. 🤷♂️
im early by 15 minutes
Spy plane for sure.