Flight ops, No. 12, August 1975

              No. 2	SP in flight August 14
While the first 747SP carried Boeing colors into the air on the initial flight of the SP program on July 4, the second production SP sat parked on the line, fresh from the paint hangar that morning in Pan Am markings. On August 14, that second SP made its first flight, and the 3 hours and 7 minutes it flew brought the total SP flight time to 78 hours and 11 minutes. The SP engineering development and certification test program calls for about 365 hours, 137 of them to be contributed by the second production airplane, N531PA.
Completion of all certification testing is scheduled for December, the awarding of an FAA type certificate is expected by January 15, and first delivery to Pan Am will be in February. The two SPs now flying will be joined by a third for scheduled tests and a fourth on standby, all four built to Pan Am specifications. The second and third airplanes are equipped to accomplish development and certification of a triple-channel, fail-operative autopilot in addition to the dual-channel autopilot system scheduled for Pan Am.
How well the SP program is doing was summed up by Pan Am’s Captain Will Brown: “With handling qualities so very similar to the basic 747, the SP airplane will fit the stable ... it really is measuring up to the predicted data and will achieve the goal of design commonality.” Captain Brown (Director—Flight Operations, Technical) made a heavily programmed 4-hour and 53-minute flight in the first SP on August 8 with Boeing Chief Test Pilot Jack Waddell. Both men were part of an SP simulator testing program of more than a year ago that was used to make the performance predictions and influence design refinements.
In commenting further on that August 8 flight, Captain Brown praised Boeing’s test instrumentation, the very latest in data recording equipment that allows the direct readout of data points in a test sequence. Having test results available at the conclusion of a test sequence increases the efficiency of a flight test program: for example, results of high-altitude stability tests (high gross weights at 42,000 ft) are difficult to get, so having immediate results can save expensive time and rescheduling.
Although Captain Brown was most enthusiastic about the SP’s remarkable similarities to the basic 747, he pointed out its “sports car” 1700-fpm climb rate at 30,000 ft and 510,000 lb and its ability to fly level at Mach .92 with maximum continuous cruise thrust at 40,000 ft and 500,000 lb. Boeing pilots on an earlier flight had pushed the SP into a high-speed run that bumped Mach .98.
Defining “design commonality,” Captain Brown made the comparison that “the handling characteristics and performance differences between the 747SP and the basic 747 will not be nearly so great as those between 720-B and 300-B advanced airplanes in the 707 fleet.”
“Operating from the flight engineer’s seat,” Stan Sabalis said, “the 747SP looks and feels the same as the large 747.” A few system improvements he described include dramatic simplification in the mechanics of the trailing edge flap system, addition of troubleshooting lights for the elusive air/ground circuits, and better airconditioning. A former problem with the upper deck dining area airconditioning has been solved, and the aft cargo compartment has been aircondition-ed so that livestock and perishables can be maintained at precise temperatures in the range from 35 to 85°F. □
From the Operations Engineering Department in Hangar 14 at JFK, Stan Sabalis takes the first officer’s seat in the cockpit of the Number 1 747SP on August 7 after a test flight. He and his companion in the left seat, Captain Will Brown, constitute a sort of Pan Am encyclopedia of the 747. [Boeing photo by Les Harcus.]

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