It’s hard to find any video on the Boeing 727 that is truly interesting.   That’s a shame because if there is one commercial airliner that lights my fire more than any other it is the 727.  I’m prejudiced, however, because it’s the aircraft I flew for hundreds of thousands of miles as a child and teenager when my father was an executive at Braniff International.

Designed in the early 1960’s, the idea was to meet requirements for the trunk airliners in the United States which were pretty diverse.  Eastern Airlines wanted more than 2 jets so it could fly overwater routes longer than 60 minutes.  United wanted superior takeoff performance because of its flights to and from Denver.  American Airlines (and most other trunk airlines) wanted 2 engine efficiency.   The three engined 727 answered all of the requirements.

It would suprise most people to learn that it was the 727 that long held the record for most aircraft built and its production spanned 20+ years with 3 basic variants.  The original 727-100 (seating about 150 people), the 727-200 (seating about 180 people) and the 727-200 Advanced which seated the same number of people but had better range and take-off performance over the original -200. 

To me, the aircraft always had the same sex appeal that a sports car has.  It was sleek, slow the to ground and the very swept wings had a very racy look.   This aircraft, in all 3 forms, was the mainstay of the Braniff International fleet from the mid-1960’s until the early 1980’s and the time I spent on them remains a very fond memory.  Despite the fact that Boeing’s cabins from the 707 to the 757 are all the same in width and basic configuration, the 727 always seemed a bit “bigger” and “wider” to me.  Indeed, the only aircraft that feels similar to me is the 757. 

Designed with a clean wing and the ability to produce a lot of “lift” at low speeds, the 727 had a fairly high sink rate that caught several early 727 captains off guard resulting in accidents.   One captain said “You didn’t try to grease the landing, you just flew it into the ground.  If you did have a smooth landing, it was a complete accident.” 

Its take-off performance was equally fun.  A take-off resulted in being pushed *very* firmly back into your seat and then a very high angle of attack seemed to shoot you into the sky.  It was noisy too.  It was really, really noisy and I must say that it was these jets that really caused a lot of the pushback on aircraft noise.   Many younger people marvel at how loud a MD-80 aircraft sounds on take-off.  The 727 was far louder than that. 

The 727 was also fast.  Of course, in its hey day, pilots didn’t worry too much about fuel either.  Nonetheless, it cruised at a far higher speed than is typical of today’s mainline domestic aircraft.  I frequently flew between DFW and Chicago in the 1970’s, for instance, and that trip, gate to gate, was at or just shy of 2 hours flat.  I also frequently flew between DFW and PDX nonstop and those flights were often done in at little as just over 3 hours.  Today, those same flights take nearly 4 hours on an MD-80.

Its undoing was the 3-man cockpit and the 3 jets it had.  I think airlines could have survived the 3 jets a bit longer but the 3 man cockpit wasn’t a tolerable condition anymore and airlines looked elsewhere.   It’s next generation development was the 757 but I think it’s unfair to refer to it in that way as the 757 is clearly more than just another evolution. 

Here are a couple of videos that I did find interesting and I hope you do too.

Delta says goodbye on its last 727 flight.

The restoration of the 1st 727, N70001U.

A Boeing 727 Rocket Assisted Take Off (RATO) Test.

Filed under: Trivia by ajax