Jumbo Beats the Gremlins

Just about every new passenger plane has been infested with gremlins in its early months of flight. The first 707 jets, for example, suffered from a dangerous case of bad brakes. Because it is the biggest jet of all, Boeing's 747 was widely expected to run into more bugs than most planes when it began carrying passengers last January.

And troubles there were. Defective air conditioning, blinking cabin lights and long lines in front of the twelve toilets have inconvenienced passengers aboard the jumbo plane. Pilots have had to cope with sticky controls, inadequately lubricated engine instruments and an anti-icing valve that stuck. A forced evacuation of one plane, because of an engine fire, turned up a flaw in the emergency chute: it peels the panty hose right off women in miniskirts. In addition, the giant Pratt & Whitney engines have been particularly troublesome. The latest difficulty involves bolts that occasionally loosen in flight and permit a small metal plate to fly through the engine, forcing a shutdown. Now when a 747 touches down for a landing, mechanics often use a periscope-like device called a chamberscope to check that the bolts or plate are not loose.

Compared with the records of other new planes, those problems are surprisingly few and are rapidly being solved. John Shaffer, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, estimates that within three weeks the airlines will be "out of the woods" with their 747 engine troubles. Meanwhile, most of the passengers and all the pilots agree that the 747 is an outstanding plane. Above all, it has become a moneymaker.

Next week the airlines will carry the millionth passenger to travel on a 747. Pan American World Airways, which has the largest fleet of the planes, has been flying them 64% full but can come out ahead with only a 40% load. Largely because of the 747, Pan Am turned in a profit in May after eight months of losses. Trans World Airlines calculates that the cost of carrying one passenger for one mile comes to 2.3-c- on the 747, compared with 2.7-c- on the Boeing 707 or Douglas DC-8. The big plane has done so well that some airlines are delaying orders for the forthcoming Lockheed and McDonnell-Douglas "airbuses," which are designed for shorter hauls. It may be that the 747 will do that job as well.

In flight, passengers behave differently on board a jumbo than on a smaller jet. "A gregariousness has set : in that we did not reckon on," says Pan Am President Najeeb Halaby. Passengers wander up and down the two aisles, try to help the stewardesses or invade the first-class flight lounge on the top deck. Of the 15,000 whom Pan Am has polled, about three-quarters praise the 747's spaciousness; the other one-quarter dislike the crowds or occasional delays in baggage handling. Passengers once were tied up for three hours at Rome's major airport after three 747s landed at approximately the same time.

The airlines are not ignoring complaints about crowding when planes fly close to capacity. Pan Am is contemplating discarding the food-service wagons that clog the aisles. Continental Airlines, which began 747 service on the Los Angeles-Honolulu run two weeks ago, reduced its seating capacity from 360 to 335. Using the extra space, it added a tourist-class bar and lounge in the tail.

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