Flight ops , No. 16, March-April 1976

              SP JOINS THE FLEET
Accompanied by smiles of satisfaction that extended across the entire first class section, Will Brown, Director—Flight Operations, Technical, handed over Pan Am’s first SP log to A1 Frink, Staff Vice President—Flight Standards, in a gesture that demonstrated “she’s ready to go.”
Will Brown has been involved with the SP program since it started in the paper stage over three years ago. “Our overriding design requirement was commonality with the existing fleet,” Will said, “and we immediately set about designing our needs into the SP to achieve that objective.
“Over the next three years we worked closely with Boeing to produce a shorter airplane that would have the standard 747 wing and body width. These requirements introduced a thunderhead of aerodynamic problems; however, they were overcome and we achieved commonality — right on schedule.
“There are many advantages of the SP concept,” Brown continued, “But the more obvious from the pilots’ point of view is the ability to ‘top the pack’ at a constant climb mach of .83. This in no small part is due to the new -7A engines. There is also a better harmony of controls because of the shorter size, and the new rudder system is more responsive.”
During the acceptance trials, Will Brown and his crew, accompanied by Boeing test engineers and their test equipment, flew for three hours to locate stable test weather. Finally over Northwest Canada the weather proved to be just what the test schedule ordered. For the next 111/2 hours, the crew and test team put the airplane through all aspects of the performance specification. “The airplane met every detail of the specification,” said Will, “and all the data was right on the curve.”
After the log book was handed over, A1 Frink, Jake Marcum, and Larry Beeby belted up to fly the new airplane from Boeing’s Paine Field to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. It was the first time that A1 had seen an SP. However, as he said, “We had done our homework and we felt comfortable in the standardized 747 environment.” As soon as Clipper Freedom had landed at Sea-Tac, she began earning her keep. A payload of international cargo was loaded aboard; A1 and his crew then brought the SP into New York where it was made ready for passenger Flight 001. On arrival at JFK, the crew expressed enthusiasm and admiration for the outstanding success the engineers had achieved in their commonality objective.