BOEING 747SP (VH-EAA)

I am sad for anyone that did not have a chance to ride on the 747sp, Pan Am and QANTAS.
I was a regular through the 80's and loved it.

THEY WERE GREAT TO TRAVEL ON HAD A FEW FLIGHTS ON THE SP WITH Qantas and i sure Cathay had them also i loved flying on them

Qantas (and Pan AM) used the SP's for the then longhaul flights of Sydney to LAX. The full size 747 had to stop in Tahiti for fuel to make the distance. I think the SYD-LAX flight in the SP was the longest non-stop flight in the world at that time!

One of the best flight experience for me was to fly with British Airways 747 from London to Tokyo. I was on Business Class and all was almost perfect.

I was on a KLM 747 rolling down the runway at Drlhi airport when the left outer engine blew. We heard the bang in the upper deck and all ghe passengers just looked at each other. Some thought a tire blowout.. we came to a controlled halt. They I could see smoking debris on the grass behind us. We evacuated. Brought back to a hotel in Delhi and ghe crew turned up at dinner that evening. They told us with typical Dutch humor that another 5 aeconds and 'our mother's would have been reading about us in the papers'

I flew on SPs with South African Airways in the 80s, Cape Town to London. I always tried to get a seat on the upper deck, which was Economy class in SAA's configuration.

Intersting

Size matters, this 747 looks weird. I like the full size ones, this one is too short.

I like the pic. Not sure the origin of suffix SP. but the term Short Plane seems to fit !

SP stood for Special Performance.