This file contains a 2-pack set of liveries for the CLS 747 representing the 500th 747 as flown by Scandinavian Airlines and Philippine Airlines from 1983 to 1997. Repaints were tested in FSX and should work with all versions of Prepar3D (including v4-5 ports of this add-on).
During development of the 747 in the late 1960s, Boeing planned to terminate production at 400 aircraft with the expectation that supersonic transports (SSTs) would render widebody jets obsolete on passenger services and relegate them to freighter duties. The economic and social climates of the following decades, however, ultimately turned out in favor of widebodies, as rising oil prices and anti-SST noise complaints forced airlines to rely on their higher capacity for profit. Because of this, 747 production carried on longer than expected with 500 completed by December 1980, and the original jumbo jet would see success with carrying passengers and freight on intercontinental routes around the world during the closing years of the 20th century.
The 500th 747, a 747-200 Combi (mixed passenger-freight compartment on main deck), was completed and rolled out of Boeing’s Everett plant on December 9, 1980 with company serial number 22381. She flew her first test flight on December 20 that same year before being delivered on February 17, 1981 to Scandinavian Airlines, which utilized combi 747s on services with large cargo traffic but too little passenger demand for a full-passenger 747. Though initially allocated a Danish registration serial, OY-KHB, she was instead delivered with the registration of her US-based lessor, N4501Q, and christened with the name “Dan Viking”. From 1981 to 1987, she flew many of SAS’ transatlantic services from its hubs in Scandinavia to American cities on both the East and West coasts, primarily on the Copenhagen-New York route with stops in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Oslo Gardermoen. SAS’ 747s eventually proved to be too big for the airline’s network, so they were replaced by the smaller DC-10 while leased out to other airlines, with 22381 having a brief stint with Egyptair before being sold to the Irish-based Guinness Peat Aviation leasing company in 1988, where she was re-registered as EI-BTS. She proved to be useful for Philippine Airlines, which had a strong passenger and cargo market on transpacific services from Manila to the US West Coast. From February 18, 1988 to July 24, 1997, 22381 was frequently deployed with her ex-SAS sister ships, EI-BWF (formerly SE-DFZ “Knut Viking”) and EI-BZA (ex-N4502R “Huge Viking”), on PAL’s transpacific flights to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Guam while occasionally flying European, Australian, and East Asian routes. She was converted into a freighter for UPS in 1998 and flew for another 13 years as N523UP until she was finally retired and broken up in the Roswell Industrial Air Center in 2011.
