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Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter Since 1995

Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Since 1995

wayne albertson articles

Boeing 747-206B(M)(SUD)

I've been trying to remember if I had ever seen one of the 'stretched upper deck' versions of KLM's B-747 fleet. When I was stationed in YYZ, KLM arrived daily alternating between B-747's and DC-10's, depending on the time of year.

I do remember very clearly an evening when we lent a couple of crew oxygen cylinders to KLM and I was sent out to the aircraft (parked on a gate) to deliver them.

I was waiting at threshold for a KLM representative to sign the loan paperwork when a series of tall blond flight attendants streamed by me, I think that I forgot why I was there. At the end of the line was the in-charge flight attendant who apparently had been advised of the loan and approached me to take possession of the cylinders.

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

The combi aircraft model, the 747-200M (originally designated 747-200BC), could carry freight in the rear section of the main deck via a side cargo door. A removable partition on the main deck separated the cargo area at the rear from the passengers at the front. The -200M could carry up to 238 passengers in a three-class configuration with cargo carried on the main deck. The model was also known as the B-747-200 Combi. As on the -100, a stretched upper deck (SUD) modification was later offered. A total of 10 combi 747-200's were operated by KLM. Union de Transports Aériens (UTA) also had two aircraft converted. 

It seems that all of the 'SUD" aircraft have been scrapped with one exception, PH-BUK, which is being preserved at the Nationaal Luchtvaart-Themapark Aviodrome at Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands. This aircraft spent its entire career in the KLM fleet, delivered in 1978 and withdrawn from service in 2003.

tmb 550 ph buk upper deck

PH-BUK upper deck

Photo courtesy of David Watkinswww.jetphotos.com

tmb 550 ph buk museum

PH-BUK being lifted from a barge in Harderwijk as part
the plane's transport to the Aviodrome museum.

Photo by Christiaan Vissecommons.wikimedia.org

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