747-8: Flight Report

Those SPs could be real hot rods. Probably does not even notice the extra drag and weight. We looked at one for the ABL, but there was not enough room inside for operators and the COIL laser, so they went with a 747-400 freighter as a baseline. The SP with big engines could have gotten higher, a big advantage for a rocket driven laser.

 

Bob, I wasn't questioning the lack of a nose fairing, only pointing out the mitigation they did have on the 74 external carriage. It seems like it would be a big deal to remove the fan, but maybe its like a center-lock wheels on cars.. The only advantage is they don't have to remove the entire nacelle and cowl, which is necessary in order to transport an engine internally on a freighter. All in all the work load of configuring the aircraft and engine would seem to be a push with using the typical approach.

 

I'm with you, Jim. All i could think of was damage to the spare engine without a faired cover. I know now that there are simpler ways of doing things.

 

You are correct, Taz. The SP was a big ol' fighter and pilots that I knew that flew it loved it and its performance. My wife and I had a flight from London to SEA in one and we left Heathrow 1 hour late due to traffic and the pilot told us not to worry about missing connections because "This airplane can make it up". It did. We landed at exactly the pre scheduled time.

 

Another "hot rod" of sorts was the 720B. Shorter and lighter than the 707, but once fitted with the same JT3D turbofans, it was definitely a quicker airplane.

 

As fuel burned off, the 720B could exceed critical Mach if the thrust levers were left unattended. The leading edge glove not only increased the sweepback in the thickest part of the wing but it diverted airflow from over the upper surface to the lower surface and eliminated the shock wave from the interference of body flow and wing flow. Western Airlines loved it because they could consistently beat United to LAX from SEA. Maybe I shouldn't spout off so much but those were exciting days. I make up all this stuff anyway.

 

I found a sketch.
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If I recall correctly, the -SP had a higher max speed (.92) than the baseline 747

But I'm curious, the -SP had long been out of production when the ABL was conceived. Why was the -SP looked at, or where there plans to acquire used aircraft for the program?

 

Less than 50 747SP's were produced and only around a dozen are still airworthy these days.

I loved the look of them. Fry's electronics has a private one.

 

Up for sale - asking i think is $1.5m

 

Came across this today and found it interesting a 747-200 slammed the #1 engine on landing into the runway while hauling 100 tons of bombs. The engine was damaged beyond repair and was flown back on 3 engines.

Accident: Transavia Export B742 at Abha on Dec 26th 2015, engine pod strike on landing

 

They're selling their 747SP? That's sad, sort of end of an era...

 

The SP is an odd, funny looking plane - squatty body... fat and short and the tail looks too tall for the plane. Not quite ugly but not pretty.

 

N747A, listed on Controller.com showing an ask of $3.0 mil. Seems like a lot of tin for the money, but what would anybody use it for? Maybe John Travolta is ready for an upgrade...

 

That tail is tall because of the short fat body. The shorter the tail arm, the more tail volume is required. They added some to the horizontal also. I never heard anything bad about the SP and the pilots liked it.

 

Actually sounds like a great plane... just 'looks' awkward to me.
Others seem to like the look.

 

I agree, it looks a bit ugly as most "shorties" look. The original 737 was ridiculed because it was a shortened 707 and looked clunky. I recall one pilot who witnessed one of the first 737's in operation during its takeoff and got on the horn and said, " Nice Punt!". I worked on several design studies to shorten existing airplanes and weight-wise they never worked. Looks-wise, they never worked. But the 747 SP somehow pulled it off as far as acceptable performance numbers.

 

It must need engines and heavy checks at that price. Probably could easily suck up 15-20 million between that and interior refurbs.

It would still be a hell of an exec transport, despite its age, need for 3 pilots, and fuel burn.

 

I don't think Travolta has the cash anymore to live the airliner life style. 707 grounded indefinitely, I hear there is corrosion - but I suspect because he doesn't have box office pull anymore, he can't get the studios (nor Qantas who's been hurting badly financially) to pony up the $$$ to keep it flying.

Rumor back in early 2000s he was looking at the SP (don't know if it's true).

Engines could very likely be updated (but don't think the cost would justify it), and could be converted to digital flight deck with 2 pilots like was done for the last -SP built for UAE (Lufthansa Technik did the conversion in 1989, reg. A6-ZSN).

 

I have no idea what it needs, but I wouldn't assume that it needs a lot because of the relatively low price. There isn't much demand for 747SPs.

 

I would believe the corrosion issue over most of other things. The airplane is in the semi to full tropic atmosphere and the bugs (microscopic) and chemical reactions from dampness, salt, and age are working to dis-assemble that airplane. There are some reactive alloys in the wing skins and the fuel tanks will harbor microbes that live in the fuel induced moisture that produce excretions that eat the aluminum. That airplane is 50 + years old and the maintenance requirements are humongous and extremely expensive on the airframe and systems. It might have high cycles, too. I don't know how he has done it so far. When I was 36 years old I helped to build that airplane for Quantas. I was in charge of a lot of the drawings that installed the hydraulics and wiring.

 

You might be right Don. Just looked it up through 747SP - Info and history of all 747SP registrations & airframes and it reports - "new engines, new interior"

21992 / 447 - Production List - Boeing 747SP Website

Still - It must be a bear with spares.

 

Long time lurker on this thread but have read every post a couple times thank you so much for this thread.
I had the most glorious sight this morning as I was walking out of Stans donuts in Chicago I looked up to see a beautiful 747 with NCA on the belly as she was in the middle of a bank into final for ORD. Lou was this by chance you?

 

+1

I may be wrong, but I don't think so. AFAIK, Lou does LAX - SFO - NRT.

He's also done some 'delivery' flights, but I think they're all out of Seattle(?)

I'm sure he'll be along soon to set us straight!

Cheers,
Ian
PS - I've been meaning to ask for ages; do you have Internet access in the cockpit?