well and Boeing realised it needed to act quickly to ensure it
didn’t lose market share.
The task was handed to Joe Sutter, who had already
designed the 747 and seen the project through to fruition.
He initially considered a three-jet airliner so as to compete
with the DC-10 and L-1011’s fuel economy. This would
result in a 33% reduction in fuel burn as well as reducing the
aircraft’s weight by around seven tonnes, but calculations
revealed the cost prohibitive design and test work would
take far too long. By the time such an aircraft took to the
skies the Lockheed and Douglas aircraft would have stolen a
significant market lead.‘Chopped’
Sutter went back to the drawing board. He knew that
‘stretched’ version of Boeing airliners had long found success
but on this occasion he had to rethink the process and soon
came up with the decision to ‘chop’ his beloved 747. This
would be both quicker and cheaper than designing a new
aircraft from scratch and, he surmised, would result in a lighter
aircraft that would trade weight for range. The project was
dubbed the Boeing 747SB (Short Body) concept and design
proceeded apace.
The project received a welcome shot in the arm in 1973
when Pan American World Airways and Iran Air approachedThe f irst prototype,
N747SP, was rolled
out on May 19, 1975.
A KEY C
Royal Air Maroc
operated just one
747SP. CN-R MS was
leased from South
African Airways (with
whom it had f lown
as ZS-SPD) between
1985 and 1994 and is
seen here at Geneva in
October 1986. It later
joined French-based
Corsair as LX-ACO
and F-GTOM but
was retired in 2002.
C C
C
32 AIRLINER Classics 2018