BOEING 747 SP LANDING - THE SHORTEST BOEING 747 in the world (4K)

Описание: I finally filmed a Boeing 747 SP - The shortest Boeing 747 version worldwide. It` s extremly rare and as far as I know there are just around five active B747SP s in the world. One of them is flying in Canada, another one for Las Vegas Sands, two as medical planes in Saudi Arabia and the fifth B747SP can be seen in this video. Nasa uses a Boeing 747SP as a flying telescope since many years. Although I took a few pictures of these short B747` s in the past I never managed to get one of these on video until yesterday.


The Boeing 747 was in maintenance at Hamburg for a few months and yesterday it was ferried to Cologne where it will be based for 6 weeks. The Nasa team will fly a few missions out of cologne and they will always depart between 1800 and 1900 and return in the middle of the night between 0200 and 0400am. Fun fact. The B747SP can` t be de-iced because of the sensitive telescope and that` s why it was delayed by 4 hours. Hamburg was covered in snow and they had to place the B747SP in a maintenance hangar to let it thaw. The Jumbo Jet arrived at Cologne at around 15:30 with a delay of 4 hours.


The Boeing 747SP (for Special Performance) is a shortened version of the Boeing 747 widebody airliner, designed for a longer range. Boeing needed a smaller aircraft to compete with the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011 TriStar trijet widebodies, introduced in 1971/1972. Pan Am requested a 747-100 derivative to fly between New York and the Middle East, a request also shared by Iran Air, and the first order came from Pan Am in 1973.

The variant which first flew on July 4, 1975, was approved by the Federal Aviation Administration on February 4, 1976, and entered service that year with Pan Am.

The SP is 47 ft (14 m) shorter than all other 747 variants. Its main deck doors are reduced to four on each side to compensate for its lower capacity. The vertical and horizontal tailplane are larger and its wing flaps have been simplified. With a 700,000 lb (320 t) MTOW, it can fly 276 passengers in three classes over 5,830 nmi (10,800 km). One 747SP was modified into the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The last airliner was delivered in 1987; some were converted to transports of heads of state. Sales did not meet the expected 200 units, and only 45 aircraft were ultimately produced


It` s also the third Boeing 747 Classic I filmed within 365 days which is quite amazing! Special thanks to Christian P. for helping me with the thumbnail. Thanks for watching, new videos every tuesday and friday.