fdr,
Thank you (and all you other knowledgeable posters here too). As you say fdr, the 747 stalls very nicely, I did many on the -100s and -200s during CofA check flights. When the 747 was put on the British register, D. P Davies required a stick nudger (not a pusher) to restore longitudinal stability shortly before the clean stall at aft CG. I quote his words from his book, Handlng the Big Jets:-
"With trim speed of 1.3Vs, after a small elevator force to start the speed reduction, the stick force falls to zero while the aeroplane quietly progresses all the way to the stall on its own .... It is common knowledge that the UK attitude to stalling is quite firm and this degree of instability, although slight, was declared unacceptable. The fix was the nudger. This is a gentle stick force augmentor of about 16lbs in the nose down sense which operates when the stick shaker starts to operate and remains effective until the stick shake cancels. In a fairly rough and rudimentary manner it restores pre-stall longitudinal stability and satisfies the requirement at little cost and with no snags. It is similar to the nudger fitted to 707-320B/C aircraft certificated in the UK which, while not taking out all the pre-stall pitch up at full flap aft CG, at least restores a positive stick force gradient down to a point very close to the stall."
Here was a simple cheap and reliable fix which had already been used on Boeing aircraft. It would have required no training with only a mention in the manuals. Would this not have been a better solution?