Pan Am was an airline used to grand gestures and though by the mid-70s it was in serious trouble, due to the massive overspend on 747s, the economic woes of the early 70s and increasing international competition, it still had plenty of hubris left in the tank. A pair of important anniversaries led to two special flights being operated each flying a new 747SP around the world but each in different directions. Each flight would break the world record and interestingly each flight would use the same aircraft – N533PA.
To be fair to Pan Am it had appeared to have turned a corner by 1976. Route swaps with TWA and cuts had at least temporarily secured the airline’s future. In fact, in 1976 it made a huge profit, almost $100 million, something that only a year earlier had seemed unbelievable. I’ve written about this period in Pan Am’s history before here:
Even with Pan Am’s troubles in the early 70s it had still been the driver behind a new type of Boeing 747. Pan Am wanted an aircraft that could fly non-stop between New York and Tokyo with a full payload. It convinced Boeing there was a market for such a plane and when Boeing came up with a shrunken 747, called the 747SP (for Special Performance), it ordered 10 and took options on 15 more in September 1973.
The SP first flew on July 4, 1975 but by then Pan Am’s financial problems had meant its order had been reduced to 7 aircraft, with a further 5 arriving on lease. Pan Am’s first SP was delivered on March 5, 1976 and registered N533PA. Unusually there were 3 other of Pan Am’s SPs with earlier construction numbers and registrations (N530-N532PA) but all would be delivered between March 29 and May 17. N533PA had already proven its capabilities, having operated a worldwide demonstration tour for Boeing, which covered 72,152 miles (116,117 km).
Pan Am began 747SP operations on April 25, 1976; flying between New York and Tokyo. This PA800/801 route avoided the usual need for the fuel stop in Anchorage and shaved three and a half hours off the usual flight time, which now became 13 hours 30 minutes. Initially three times a week the route quickly became popular with business customers and was upgraded to daily.
THE LIBERTY BELL EXPRESS
N533PA was originally named ‘Clipper Freedom’ but that was almost immediately changed when the aircraft was chosen for a special flight. 1976 was the year of the US Bicentennial and Pan Am wanted to do something special.
‘Clipper Freedom’ became ‘Clipper Liberty Bell’ (switching names with N531PA) for the record breaking around the world flight known as the Liberty Bell Express. The route was from and to New York JFK, only stopping at Delhi and Tokyo. N533PA took off on May 1,1976 and landed back at JFK two days later on May 3rd. With a total flight time of just over 46 hours and covering over 23,137 miles it was a world record.
The flight had only 98 passengers onboard and made excellent time, aside from a two hour delay on the ground in Tokyo due to an airport workers strike. N533PA was in the air for 39 hours, 25 minutes and 53 seconds and comfortably beat the previous record, set by a Flying Tigers 707, by over 16 hours.
FLIGHT 50
The next year Pan Am celebrated its 50th anniversary and to celebrate decided to undertake a second world record flight. This time it would fly to and from San Francisco but via both poles. N533PA was once again chosen for the honour and once again was renamed – this time to ‘Clipper New Horizons’. Stops were made at Heathrow, Cape Town and Auckland.
Unlike for the earlier flight N533PA gained a special Flight 50 emblem on the fuselage and interestingly it kept this special logo in its later life even after Pan Am had switched to the new billboard livery. By that time the aircraft had been renamed again to ‘Clipper Young America’.
References
Villmizar, H. Pan Am’s Polar Flight Around the World. Airways Magazine
Baldwin, JP. Pan Am Series Pt XII: The Boeing 747SP. JPB Trans Consulting LLC
Hardiman, J. 45 Years Ago Pan Am Flew A Boeing 747 Around The World In 3 Days. Simple Flying
O’Brien, B. Pan Am’s Pioneering Boeing 747SP Flights. Airliner World
Pan Am 747SPs. RZjets.net
Pan Am Record Setting Flights. Wikipedia
