Iran Air 747SP's getting scrapped

Iemand91 · Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:49 pm

According to these tweets; several Iran Air classic aircraft will be scrapped within the next 3 months including the 4 Boeing 747SP's.
https://twitter.com/BabakTaghvaee/statu ... 6619223040

Of course; those beauties had no nice future in store for them, but this is quite harsh to a 747 lover like I am.
From the 45 build, only 9 are in service today and 18 are scrapped. In a few weeks time, that will be 22 scrapped.
Iran Air was the last airline to fly passengers with the 747SP and the last one retired in June, 2016.

Continental767 · Fri Mar 02, 2018 1:17 am

What a sad end to a long and successful career for these birds.

seabiscuit · Fri Mar 02, 2018 1:18 am

45272455674 · Fri Mar 02, 2018 1:25 am

Extremely sad.

If only there was a way to save one of them - in full Iran Air colours. They are beautiful old planes and pretty rare these days too.

The 747 tankers (one of which is in the background of the first photo) are equally rare and of special historical value).

F9Animal · Fri Mar 02, 2018 3:13 am

Oh how I wish they would preserve one and make a museum. That would give me a total reason to visit.

juliuswong · Fri Mar 02, 2018 4:04 am

This is really sad. Isn't there a Aviation Museum called Tehran Aerospace Exhibition Center at Tehran? I vaguely remember reading about it.

aeromoe · Fri Mar 02, 2018 4:08 am

No surprise there...these airframes are quite old. As lamented, too bad one can't (or wont?) be saved for a museum. Awesome aircraft.

Veigar · Fri Mar 02, 2018 5:39 am

That's really sad! I guess I should consider myself lucky to live in Vegas, there are two 747SP's here 24/7...

RWA380 · Fri Mar 02, 2018 6:33 am

There is a special place in aviation history with these sport model 747's. RIP to one of the game changing aircraft in aviation history.

NameOmitted · Fri Mar 02, 2018 7:39 am

It's sad, but it's ultimately an honorable fate for any ship to be scrapped in port. It means she got her crew home safely even to the last.

Goodyear · Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:15 am

I personally would rather see an aircraft scrapped than be "preserved" in such a dilapidated state as some of the aircraft in that "museum".

DLHAM · Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:58 am

Wow thats sad! As I was still in school I went to the Airport here in HAM very often on sundays to see the Iran Air 747SP. Occasionally it was a 747-100 (which is not bad either ;-)

) or an A300/A310.

Later, as I worked at the Airport, I was working on the IR 747SP a few times as a Ramp Agent.

Dahlgardo · Fri Mar 02, 2018 9:33 am

Sad to see them go, but to be honest, they had a much much longer career than should have been expected.
The 747SP was obsolete already in the 1980s.

EI321 · Fri Mar 02, 2018 9:44 am

Sad to see them go. At least one should be preserved in a Museum.

Iemand91 · Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:46 pm

Some more:

OA260 · Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:53 pm

Such a shame. My first and only flight on a 747SP was with Iran Air . It was a great experience I will always remember.

opticalilyushin · Fri Mar 02, 2018 1:03 pm

OA260 wrote:
Such a shame. My first and only flight on a 747SP was with Iran Air . It was a great experience I will always remember.

Agreed, I spent 8 very happy hours on -IAC. No need for the mod-cons like IFE, I was happy to enjoy the view out the window, read a book, soak in the engine sounds, and even chat to the pilots from the jumpseat at 40,000ft.

Iemand91 · Wed Mar 07, 2018 9:48 pm

Two historic Boeing 727-286Cs of #IranAir (EP-IRS & EP-IRT) were transferred from the airline's apron to #IACI ramp to be scrapped beside the Boeing 747SPs in incoming days. All of #IranAir's airplanes procured before #Iran's Islamic Revolution 1979 are planned to be scrapped.

https://twitter.com/BabakTaghvaee/statu ... 1907837954

Today the last & third Boeing 727-286C of #IranAir with EP-IRR register was sent to scrapyard of #IACI #Iran|ian Aircraft Industries Company in #Mehrabad International Airport to be scrapped & be sold for $1.2 USD per kg. similar to other Boeing 727s & all Boeing 747SP-86s.

Iemand91 · Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:06 pm

3 out of 4 Iran Air 747SP's (EP-IAA, -IAB and -IAD) are parked at THR airport, will be scrapped soon:

EP-IAC is stored at IKA airport. I'm hearing different stories about her. One says she'll be scrapped at IKA, others say she will be brought back into service, using parts of her 3 sisters...

UAL747422 · Fri Mar 09, 2018 2:57 pm

I feel you. Being a 747 lover also, I am sad to see this. To be honest, I was expecting this. I, unfortunately, didn't see a future for them. They had a long successful career.

readytotaxi · Fri Mar 09, 2018 7:12 pm

Iemand91 wrote:
3 out of 4 Iran Air 747SP's (EP-IAA, -IAB and -IAD) are parked at THR airport, will be scrapped soon:

EP-IAC is stored at IKA airport. I'm hearing different stories about her. One says she'll be scrapped at IKA, others say she will be brought back into service, using parts of her 3 sisters...

A nice video onboard EP-IAC here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZz2-2-5wKM :cloudnine:

OA260 · Fri Mar 09, 2018 7:54 pm

readytotaxi wrote:
Iemand91 wrote:
3 out of 4 Iran Air 747SP's (EP-IAA, -IAB and -IAD) are parked at THR airport, will be scrapped soon:

EP-IAC is stored at IKA airport. I'm hearing different stories about her. One says she'll be scrapped at IKA, others say she will be brought back into service, using parts of her 3 sisters...

A nice video onboard EP-IAC here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZz2-2-5wKM

Great video. When you look at their catering and service it puts quite a few ''established'' airlines to shame !

william · Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:22 pm

NameOmitted wrote:
It's sad, but it's ultimately an honorable fate for any ship to be scrapped in port. It means she got her crew home safely even to the last.

+1

So true, and that goes for everyone plane retired to the boneyard or museum. Through all types of weather and airports, the aircrafts did their jobs, got their crew and pax "there" safely.

SPLover · Fri Mar 09, 2018 10:01 pm

Very sad to see this. My very first flight was on an IR 747SP in 1980 when I was a kid. I still remember walking up the stairs to enter the aircraft, looking at the engines from top of the stairs... what a sad day...

UA444 · Wed May 16, 2018 8:01 pm

Are these still intact?

glbltrvlr · Wed May 16, 2018 8:19 pm

Were these Ex-Pan Am birds? Judging by the exterior photos, they weren't maintained very well.

IranianMan123 · Wed May 16, 2018 8:55 pm

glbltrvlr wrote:
Were these Ex-Pan Am birds? Judging by the exterior photos, they weren't maintained very well.

They were in service for 40 years. They must have been maintained well.

Iemand91 · Wed May 16, 2018 8:56 pm

UA444 wrote:
Are these still intact?

The last several days/weeks I've been searching for recent pictures but I couldn't find any.
Planespotters.net has 3 of them listed as scrapped with -IAC remaining.

glbltrvlr wrote:
Were these Ex-Pan Am birds? Judging by the exterior photos, they weren't maintained very well.

Nope, delivered new to Iran Air.
Iran Air and Pan Am both asked Boeing for a high-capacity airliner with sufficient range to cover Pan Am's New York–Middle Eastern routes and Iran Air's planned Tehran–New York route.

Iemand91 · Wed May 23, 2018 10:36 pm

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Iran-Air ... 86/5017089

Looks like EP-IAC made her very last flight today; IKA to THR.
Her future is unknown, stories range from being stored to getting scrapped.
But that note on the last picture says it all...

Departure from IKA:

Arrival at THR:

Flighty · Thu May 24, 2018 1:38 am

Spectacular birds. There was a memorable trip report here on here, I believe the ccs-dam-THR route. Better days!

I photographed one at NRT in 2004. The NW DC-10 was also there.

United_fan · Thu May 24, 2018 11:33 am

The note on the lower left sums it up. Sad to see -SP's scrapped. I think -IAD is preserved by them?

leghorn · Thu May 24, 2018 11:41 am

fwiw
10 year old report and I don't know if they had an agenda

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ali-delf ... ccounter=1

Iemand91 · Thu May 24, 2018 12:36 pm

United_fan wrote:
I think -IAD is preserved by them?

Don't think so, see the image in my post here: viewtopic.php?p=20428391#p20235223

Those 3 aircraft are EP-IAA, -IAB and -IAD stored at THR. Now -IAC has been ferried to THR as well.

Unfortunately I can't find any recent pictures/videos of the 3 stored 747SP's at THR. They may have well been scrapped already.

Iemand91 · Sat May 26, 2018 12:21 pm

Titles already removed from -IAC.

Wish I could find recent pictures of -IAA, -IAB and -IAD but that picture from #19 is the most recent I can find. I wonder if they're already scrapped or not.
Still don't know what's exactly going to happen with -IAC. But I guess scrap too.

TUGMASTER · Sun May 27, 2018 1:41 am

Wow... that’s brutal......!

Iemand91 · Sat Sep 15, 2018 9:49 pm

I've been searching for more recent info/photo's from the Iran 747SP's for some time. Hard to find any.
But Google Maps/Earth has been updated (date is August 1, 2018):

https://goo.gl/maps/DSjJVFAZNe62

And found some more recent photo's. All taken on June 1, 2018.
The 747SP's registrations are (from left to right) EP-IAA, EP-IAB, EP-IAD and the last one active and lost one stored in the back; EP-IAC.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmbUADdgksb/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmbU03IAqR7/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmbVbGBgusV/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmbU03IAqR7/

727200 · Sat Sep 15, 2018 11:49 pm

I know anything is possible, but are we pretty much in agreement that these birds days are over?

KanaHawaii · Sun Sep 16, 2018 12:53 am

If in a hypothetical world we could somehow bring these birds back to life, one thing that would have to be done is to, literally, zero time out almost every component in the plane. While it can be said that the planes were flown, safely obviously as there were 4 new, and same 4 retired, to even think of making these planes airworthy again is probably a bridge too far. While the scrap market is still down from what I understand, the ROI on these planes now for the amount of time put into them might only be the scrappers welder at the end.

Tommy Mogren · Mon Oct 08, 2018 10:25 pm

They were reported seen intact a few days ago at THR. (Oct 2018)
So still not scrapped...

/Tommy

SteelChair · Tue Oct 09, 2018 12:21 am

Scrapping an airplane is not as simple as it sounds. For example, the elevator counterweights in the L1010 were made from depleted uranium. The fuel densitometers in the 757/767 have a radioactive material in them. Perhaps Iran lacks the technical capability to scrap them properly?

Flighty · Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:15 am

I regret not riding Iranair 747sp. May god bless her says the logbook. As only one avgeek, I do not doubt Iranair’s capability to repair or disassemble the airplane. I suspect this was their proudest fleet and their prized possession. Maybe they are not quick to want to tear them up.

xjetflyer2001 · Tue Oct 09, 2018 3:32 am

Flighty wrote:
I regret not riding Iranair 747sp. May god bless her says the logbook. As only one avgeek, I do not doubt Iranair’s capability to repair or disassemble the airplane. I suspect this was their proudest fleet and their prized possession. Maybe they are not quick to want to tear them up.

They should put one in a museum, not to get off topic, but is that the Mahan Air 747-300 in those photos?

Iemand91 · Tue Oct 09, 2018 1:08 pm

xjetflyer2001 wrote:
They should put one in a museum, not to get off topic, but is that the Mahan Air 747-300 in those photos?

That is a Mahan Air 747-300. I believe it's EP-MNE.
Their last 747-300 and the world's last active passenger 747-classic (EP-MND) is probably at Bandar Abbas (BND) where it's was flown to on September 5.

Narfish641 · Tue Oct 09, 2018 2:00 pm

Iemand91 wrote:
xjetflyer2001 wrote:
They should put one in a museum, not to get off topic, but is that the Mahan Air 747-300 in those photos?

That is a Mahan Air 747-300. I believe it's EP-MNE.
Their last 747-300 and the world's last active passenger 747-classic (EP-MND) is probably at Bandar Abbas (BND) where it's was flown to on September 5.

I still can't believe out of all the remaiming 747-400 and 747-8i aircraft flying there is that one -300 variant still flying for passenger service (Yes I know there a few SPs still flying including the Las Vegas Sands), but this is insane to keep it in service that long! The first flight of this aircraft was 32 years ago, January 1st, 1986. Let that sink in...

aglew · Tue Oct 09, 2018 2:48 pm

Hi, there's a preserved SAA 747 SP at the SAA Air Museum at Germiston Airport, Johannesburg : http://www.saamuseum.co.za/
Landing it was epic : https://youtu.be/ap_nyRzEOMI
Its a South African thing - chucking 747's around like Spitfires....

stratclub · Tue Oct 09, 2018 4:55 pm

I worked as an AMT at Boeing at BFI on the last SP after it was turned into a flying palace by Dee Howard. The opulence was incredible.

A6-ZSN. Boeing 747SP-Z5. c/n 23610-676.
http://www.aussieairliners.org/b-747sp/ ... a6zsn.html

The final Boeing 747SP was constructed from the outset as a V.I.P. aircraft. However what is more remarkable about this aircraft is that it was built five years after Boeing had closed the 747SP production line.

Ordered by Government of Abu Dhabi in June 1986 it was the forty-fifth 747SP built and the last example powered by Rolls Royce engines. It was purchased by the staff of the Sultan of Oman as a birthday present to him. Rolled out of the Boeing plant at Everett on March 13, 1987 it was powered by Rolls Royce RB211-524C2 engines. Carrying the Boeing test registration of N60659 it flew for the first time on March 31, 1987. Having completed its test and certification flying it was handed over the Dee Howard Company at San Antonio Airport, Texas for its V.I.P. fit-out.

The aircraft was fitted with an elaborate interior. This included state-of-the-art electronic and communications equipment, the most notable feature being the distinctive dome attached to the roof of the upper deck. When everything had been completed the aircraft was handed over to the Sultan's representatives at Vancouver Airport, Canada on December 09, 1989 registered as N60697. It was then entered onto the United Arab Emirates Aircraft Register as A6-ZSN to be operated by the Abu Dhabi Amiri Flight.

On November 17, 2006 it was sold to the Bahrain Government. It was entered onto the Bahrain Aircraft Register as A9C-HAK on January 01, 2007. Operated by the Bahrain Royal Flight it continues to fly on a regular basis to many destinations around the world.

LH748 · Tue Oct 09, 2018 5:37 pm

How extremely sad

I wish one would get saved and continue its life in a museum.
A few years I had the joy of spotting an IR 747SP in KUL and it was an absolute highlight.
May they rest in peace

blacksoviet · Sat Dec 22, 2018 6:55 pm

stratclub wrote:
I worked as an AMT at Boeing at BFI on the last SP after it was turned into a flying palace by Dee Howard. The opulence was incredible.

A6-ZSN. Boeing 747SP-Z5. c/n 23610-676.
http://www.aussieairliners.org/b-747sp/ ... a6zsn.html

The final Boeing 747SP was constructed from the outset as a V.I.P. aircraft. However what is more remarkable about this aircraft is that it was built five years after Boeing had closed the 747SP production line.

Ordered by Government of Abu Dhabi in June 1986 it was the forty-fifth 747SP built and the last example powered by Rolls Royce engines. It was purchased by the staff of the Sultan of Oman as a birthday present to him. Rolled out of the Boeing plant at Everett on March 13, 1987 it was powered by Rolls Royce RB211-524C2 engines. Carrying the Boeing test registration of N60659 it flew for the first time on March 31, 1987. Having completed its test and certification flying it was handed over the Dee Howard Company at San Antonio Airport, Texas for its V.I.P. fit-out.

The aircraft was fitted with an elaborate interior. This included state-of-the-art electronic and communications equipment, the most notable feature being the distinctive dome attached to the roof of the upper deck. When everything had been completed the aircraft was handed over to the Sultan's representatives at Vancouver Airport, Canada on December 09, 1989 registered as N60697. It was then entered onto the United Arab Emirates Aircraft Register as A6-ZSN to be operated by the Abu Dhabi Amiri Flight.

On November 17, 2006 it was sold to the Bahrain Government. It was entered onto the Bahrain Aircraft Register as A9C-HAK on January 01, 2007. Operated by the Bahrain Royal Flight it continues to fly on a regular basis to many destinations around the world.

How much range does the final 747SP have? Can it fly further than a 747-200B?

stratclub · Mon Dec 24, 2018 2:43 am

According to Wikipedia it has less range.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747#Specifications

blacksoviet · Mon Dec 24, 2018 6:00 am

opticalilyushin wrote:
OA260 wrote:
Such a shame. My first and only flight on a 747SP was with Iran Air . It was a great experience I will always remember.

Agreed, I spent 8 very happy hours on -IAC. No need for the mod-cons like IFE, I was happy to enjoy the view out the window, read a book, soak in the engine sounds, and even chat to the pilots from the jumpseat at 40,000ft.

I hope to see -IAC brought back into service.

Who is online

Popular Searches On Airliners.net