Half Way Around The World Is Far Enough
This is a copy of some of the things that Capt Massey-Greene wrote after the flight. The whole thing is about 9 pages long and the initial part explains the early part of travel and so on and then goes into the guts of it...
...The idea for our long range flight came origionally from a suggestion that we should fly a 747SP non-stop from London to Perth. the SP was, until development of the 747-400, the longest range commercial aircraft in the world. The SP has been used for some years by QANTAS on non stop Pacific routes from the east coast of Australia to the west coast of the USA.
The 747SP held then the current non stop distance record for a commercial aircraft. This flight by a Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7F powered SPflew a great circle distance of 8, 872nm in 17hrs, 22min with the assistance of a 36kt tail wind. Increased takeoff gross weight and the use of a 2000 USG pillow fuel tank in the cargo hold were required to achieve the flight.
The 747SP was developed in 1976 to satisfy long, thin route requirements. It was a derivative of the basic 747 with a shorter fuselage and aerodynamic improvements in the wing/body fairing and engine strut area.
The 747-400 was a new aircraft incorporating some more aerodynamic improvements such as wing tip extensions and winglets, an improved wing/body strake fairing (erived from the SP) and a re-rigged elevator. With 3000USG of fuel in the horizontal stab, and engine improvements to the RR RB211-524G engines more than offset the larger size and extra weight. This resulted in the -400 having 14% more range capability than the SP. OF this 14%, approximately 4.5% came from the aerodynamic improvements and the rest from the improved engines.
The London to Perth non-stop did not happen.
During the early planning of the 747-400 introduction, it was suggested that we should fly this aircraft from London to Sydney non-stop to promote the image of QANTAS as a pioneering long haul carrier.
Initially the idea was regarded as crazy, for the aircraft did not have enough range. THe nominal range of the -400 is 7900nm and the proposal to fly it 9700nm non-stop. Surely someone was dyslexic!
Well, not really, that 7900nm was for an aircraft with a nominal full volumetric load. What was the aircraft capable of if it was flown empty? Just over 9000nm.
Was it really possible to fly London the Sydney non-stop? QANTAS traditional flag route had always been the Kangaroo route and what a coup if we could be the first to fly it non-stop.
Not only non-stop but almost halfway around the world and between two of the most distant city pairs on the globe.
The idea began to gather momentum, and as the project pilot for the aircraft I was charged with making it happen. The non-stop part of the project was continued now in great secrecy and on a strictly need to know basis.
As with any project of this kind there will always be those who will tell you it cannot be done. I then had to adopt the approach of "Dont tell me it cant be done, tell me what we need to do."
Gradually over a period of months, we got closer and coser to this all starting to make sense. The parameters for the flight were set. It would be extremely desirable to carry some passengers (about 20), the aircraft should not be stripped, and the operational rules should not be grossly different from the norm. Impossible! "Dont strip the aircraft, add weight of passengers, that all costs fuel" said the doubters.
Boeing (only 3 people in Boeing knew of the attempt at this stage) produced some figures and charts that said it was theoretically possible. But only under ideal conditions. THe aircraft would need to be perfect and we needed a good set of engines and the winds had to be favourable.
The build of the aircraft was controllable and we could talk to RR about the engines, but the winds.........?
A study began of what winds we could expect at what perids of the year. Origionall, the first aircraft was due do be delivered in April, 1989 and that was statistically one of the better times of the year for an attempt.
RR were approached at a high level to talk about the need for a particularly good set of engines. They agreed to do whatever was possible.
A route study was done to plan the shortest possible ground miles for the flight. Numerous alternatives were also planned to allow for the best tracking on the day to take advantage of whatever winds would be blowing. Boeings origional study had been done using Great Circle distances between major city pairs along the route.
This had produced a total distance of 9505nm. We did not believe that we could obtain overflight clearances for GC tracking in todays busy skies. Utilising established airways our shortest route was 9624nm. Yet another 120nm to squeeze out of the aircraft.
Then the aircraft delivery was delayed. The further the delay, the worse the winds were likely to be. An August delivery was statistically the worst time of the year for winds.
How could we squeeze some more range out of the aircraft? We would reduce the bleed air demand from the engines for air-conditioning by operating the aircraft utilising only one of the three units. Air quality in the cabin was not a consideration with a maximum of 30 people planned to be on board. Using a single air-conditioning pack could theoretically gain us about 0.5% in range. But would the pressurisation hold at our maximum planned altitude of 45000ft wich such a low inflow? We would not know until we flew the aircraft.
We could use the fuel in the horizontal stabilizer tank to our advantage by not using it until we absolutely had to. We would run the trim in flight down to its maximum aft centre of gravity permissible. This would keep the aircraft in its most efficient trim condition and use less fuel, gaining another theoretical 0.4% in range until the tank was empty.
The weight of the aircraft had to be pared to an absolute minimum withing the bounds that had been established. The galley equipment would have to be kept to essentials only. No silver service for our VIP passengers on this flight! Water tank quantity should be the minimum required for the few on board. All non-essential equipment and the normal delivery flight stores would have to be transported to Sydney some other way - not on board as was our usual practice. Weight came down and the range edged up. Still not enough.
Fuel for the flight became the critical factor. Fuel weight is limited by tank volume, but if we could somehow make the fuel more dense then we could carry more weight of fuel and it is mass flow that affects the engines. We investigated the possibility of chilling fuel, as this would increase the density slightly. But how to chill 60000 USG and would the effect of cooling be enough? Where could we get some dense fuel? So the search began. Someone suggested we use JP10, an increadibly dense synthetic fuel used by military for some missile applications. That was no good, boeing advised, the wing structure is not designed to carry that kind of weight and besides, the winglets of this aircraft are not fitted with outrigger wheels. The search went on.
A slight increase in fuel quantity could be achieved by overfilling the fuel tanks. Normally the fuel tanks are never quite filled, to leave some airspace for expansion and prevent fuel spillage if it warmed after fuelling. By overriding the volumetric ****-off of the fuelling system, we could overfill the tanks by about 500 USG. We knew at least on airline used this procedure on a regular basis, provided fuelling was completed just prior to departure.
We kept paring weight out of the aircraft. Alll normal galley equipmet not required on the flight would be shipped to Sydney via Los Angeles. Safety equipment, except the amount required for the actual passengers on board would also be shipped. The same would apply to any cargo restraint equipment. The holds would be empty. The operating weight of the aircraft came down and the range capability edged up.
We started to run actual plans through our flight planning computer. We were tantalizingly close. The fuel for the flight was critical. The search went on......
...to be continued...