Encyclopedia
The
Boeing 727 is a mid-size, single-aisle commercial jet airliner. It first took to the skies in 1963 and was, for a very long time, the most popular jet-liner in the world. 1,831 727s were delivered.
About
The 727 design arose as a compromise between
United Airlines,
American Airlines, and
Eastern Air Lines over the configuration of a jet airliner to service smaller cities which often had shorter runways and correspondingly smaller passenger demand.
United Airlines wanted a four-engined aircraft for its flights to high-altitude airports, especially its hub at
Stapleton International Airport at Denver, Colorado. American wanted a twin-engined aircraft for efficiency reasons. Eastern wanted a third engine for its overwater flights to the Caribbean. Eventually, the three airlines agreed on a
trijet, and thus the 727 was born. The 727 featured high lift devices on its wing, thus being one of the first jets to be able to operate from airports offering modest runway lengths. Later models of the 727 were stretched to accommodate more passengers and they ended up replacing earlier jet airliners, such as its sibling the
707, on domestic routes.
Since the 727 proved to be a reliable and versatile airliner that came to form the core of many start-up airlines' fleets, it is sometimes described as the "
DC-3 of the Jet Age."
At the turn of the 21st century, the 727 was still a vital part of some major American airline fleets. But the 727 had a reputation for high noise and most airlines were already switching to twinjets, aircraft with only two engines. Twinjets tend to be much more efficient than planes with three or four jets. Also, the 727 was one of the last airliners in service to have a three-person crew, including a flight engineer, a crewmember whose job is performed by computerized systems on newer planes.
Faced with higher fuel costs, lower sales due to the post-9/11 economic climate, and the extra expense of maintaining older planes, most major airlines began phasing 727s out of their fleet.
Delta Air Lines, the last major U.S. carrier to do so, retired its last 727 in 2003. However, the 727 is still flying for smaller start-up airlines, cargo airlines, and charter airlines, and it is also becoming increasingly popular as a private means of transportation. The official replacement for the Boeing 727 in Boeing's lineup was the
Boeing 757. However, the smallest 757 variant, the 757-200, is significantly larger than the Boeing 727-200, so many airlines replaced their 727s with either the
Boeing 737-800 or the
Airbus A320, both of which are more similar in size to the 727-200.
The 727 proved very successful with airlines worldwide partly because of its capability to take off and land on smaller runways while still flying medium range routes. This effectively allowed airlines to attract passengers from cities with large populations but smaller airports to worldwide tourist destinations. One of the features that gave the 727 its ability to land on shorter runways was its unique wing design. Through flap extension and leading edge slat deployment, the 727 could almost double its wing surface area, allowing it to fly with great stability at very slow speeds. The 727 also had nosegear brakes fitted in the beginning to further decrease braking distance upon landing. These were however removed later as they proved to provide little gain in braking over added weight and higher maintenance costs.
The 727 was designed to be used at smaller, regional airports, so independence from ground facilities was an important requirement. This gave rise one of the 727's most distinctive features: the built-in
airstair that drops from the rear underbelly of the fuselage. Another innovation was the inclusion of an
APU , which allowed electrical and air-conditioning systems to run independent of a ground-based power supply. Additionally, the 727 is equipped with a retractable tail skid which is designed to protect the aircraft in the event of an over-rotation on takeoff.
However, the 727 is also one of the loudest commercial jetliners, so most models in the United States must be fitted with hush kits to reduce engine noise. The 727's
JT8D jet engines use older
low-bypass turbofan technology while more modern airliners utilize the more efficient and less noisy
high-bypass turbofan design instead.
Post-production
winglets have also been installed on many 727's as a means of noise reduction as part of so called "Quiet Wing" Kits and for added fuel economy.
Kelowna Flightcraft's maintenance division in Canada is noted for having installed Winglets on
Donald Trump's private 727-100.
Despite the exterior noise, the 727 has a relatively quiet passenger cabin due to the placement of the engines at the rear of the aircraft.
In addition to domestic flights of medium range, the 727 proved extremely popular with international passenger airlines. The range of flights it could cover meant that the 727 would prove efficient for short to medium range international flights in areas around the world.
The 727 also has proved popular with cargo airlines and charter airlines.
FedEx began the
cargo airline revolution in 1975 utilizing 727s, and still uses the 727 to this date. Many cargo airlines worldwide now employ the 727 as a work horse. The
USPS uses the type to fly mail from city to city every day. Charter airlines
Sun Country, Champion Air, and Ryan International Airlines all were started with 727 aircraft.
Other companies use the 727 as a way to transport passengers to their resorts or
cruise ships. Such was the example of
Carnival Cruise Lines, which used both the 727 and
737 to fly both regular flights and flights to transport their passengers to cities that harbored their ships. Carnival used the jets on their airline division,
Carnival Air Lines.
Major airlines that have flown the jet include AeroSur,
Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aerolíneas Internacionales,
Air Canada,
Air France,
Air Malta,
ANA,
Alitalia,
American,
ATA Airlines, Australian Airlines,
Avianca, Aviacsa,
China Airlines, Copa,
Delta Air Lines,
Dominicana,
Eastern Air Lines,
FedEx,
First Air,
Iberia,
Japan Airlines,
JAT,
Korean Air,
Lloyd Aereo Boliviano,
Lufthansa,
Mexicana,
Northeast Airlines,
Northwest Airlines,
Olympic Airways,
Pan Am,
People Express,
Sabena,
Singapore Airlines,
United Airlines,
US Airways,
Varig, Viasa,
Western Airlines and, among charter airlines,
Carnival Air Lines, Tame and
Hapag-Lloyd.
In addition, the 727 has seen sporadic government use, having flown for the
Belgian,
Yugoslavian and
New Zealand air forces, among the small group of government agencies that have used it. The United States military used the 727 as a military transport. It is designated as the C22. The 727 that carried New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger was known as Spud One.
Variants
There are two variants of the 727 and launched on two separate occasions. The 727-100 was launched in 1960 with introduction into service in February 1964. The 727-200 was launched in 1965 with introduction into service in December 1967.
727-100
The first production model.
727-100CIs the Convertible version. The seats can be removed and cargo placed on the main deck.
727-100QCQC stands for Quick Change. This is similar to the Convertible version, however design changes allowed much faster transformation time.
727-100QFQF stands for Quiet Freighter.
United Parcel Service cargo conversion, re-engined with Stage III-compliant Rolls-Royce Tay turbofans.
727-200
Stretched version of the 727.
Advanced 727-200Stretched 20 feet ahead of the wings. MTOW and range increased.
Advanced 727-200FAll freight version of the 727-200.
Specifications
| Measurement | 727-100 | 727-200 |
|---|
| Length | 40.6 m or 133 ft 2 in | 46.7 m or 153 ft 2 in |
| Span | 32.9 m or 108 ft | 32.9 m or 108 ft |
| Height | 10.3 m or 34 ft | 10.3 m or 34 ft |
| Zero Fuel Weight | | |
| Maximum take-off weight | 76,818 kg | 95,227 kg |
| Cruising speed | .81 Mach | .81 Mach |
| Maximum speed | .86 Mach | .86 Mach |
| Range fully loaded | | |
| Max. fuel capacity | 31,000 liters 8,186 USG | 37,020 liters or 9,806 USG |
| Engines | | |
| Cockpit crew | Three | Three |
| Max Seating capacity | 149 | 189 |
727 Deliveries
| 1984 | 1983 | 1982 | 1981 | 1980 | 1979 | 1978 | 1977 | 1976 | 1975 | 1974 | 1973 | | 8 | 11 | 26 | 94 | 131 | 136 | 118 | 67 | 61 | 91 | 91 | 92 |
|
1972 | 1971 | 1970 | 1969 | 1968 | 1967 | 1966 | 1965 | 1964 | 1963 | 1962 | 1961 | | 41 | 33 | 55 | 114 | 160 | 155 | 135 | 111 | 95 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
|
Incidents
- Hull-loss Accidents: 85 - with a total of 3698 fatalities.
- Other occurrences: 15 - with a total of 256 fatalities.
- Hijackings: 180 - with a total of 90 fatalities.
- In 1973, On February 21, a Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 Boeing 727-224 flying over the Sinai Desert was shot by Israeli air forces that suspected it of being an enemy military plane. Among 113 people on board 108 died.
- In 1978, a Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 crashed after colliding with a Cessna 172 aircraft in San Diego, killing 144 people.
- In 1980, a Dan-Air Boeing 727-64 crashed in Tenerife. All on board were killed when the aircraft hit terrain while circling.
- In 1983, an Iberia
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Boeing 727 collided with a Douglas DC-9 of Aviaco as the two airliners taxied down the runway at Barajas International Airport, Madrid, causing the deaths of most passengers on both airliners.
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Boeing 727 crashed after getting entangled with a television antenna while landing in Bilbao, killing 148 people.
Trivia
- The 727's sales record for the most jets bought in history was broken in the early 1990s by its sister, the Boeing 737.
- On May 25, 2003, a 727 formerly used by American Airlines was reported stolen from Luanda's international airport in Angola. Most intelligence agents believe the missing plane to be in the hands of terrorists or drug dealers. The mechanic who was on the plane, Ben Charles Padilla, has never been heard from again.
- The Boeing 727, according to Airliner World magazine, was the first jet able to land at La Paz, Bolivia's international airport. That airport's height — 13,000 feet above sea level — made it impossible for earlier jetliners to land there.
- "D. B. Cooper", the hijacker, parachuted from the back of a 727 as it was flying over the Pacific Northwest. He chose the 727 specifically because the airstair in its tail facilitated his jump. Jumping from a side door would likely have been fatal. Boeing subsequently modified the design with the "Cooper Vane" so that the airstair couldn't be lowered in flight.
- Zero Gravity Corporation, private company, uses a retrofitted Boeing 727 to give paying customers brief weightlessness, similar to NASA's Vomit Comet and Russia's Il-76K, used to train Astronauts and Cosmonauts, respectively.
- In the early 1960s, Eastern Air Lines and other airlines began calling their 727s "Whisperjets", allegedly because a passenger seated forward in First Class, in theory, could only hear the rear-mounted turbofan jet engines as a whisper in the background. This feature also permitted passengers to whisper to each other. Before Boeing built 727s, hearing someone whispering aboard a jet plane was not possible.
- Every few years, 727 cargo planes accidentally tip back and wind up sitting on their tails because the planes are unloaded improperly and the Airstair in the tail is not deployed. All three turbofan jet engines are all mounted at the tail of the plane making the aircraft rear end heavy. The workers must unload the plane from the rear to the front. Unloading from the front to the rear causes the plane to tip back. This point of trivia is .
- Similar planes: The Russian Tupolev Tu-154 is a similar looking jet airliner often confused with the 727. It can be told apart by its different shaped nose section, large wing sweep, large drag reduction devices on the wings, and a pointy section on the vertical stabilizer. Also, the Tu-154 has six wheels on their landing gear, rather than two wheels on the 727 landing gear. The British Hawker-Siddeley Trident was also similar, being a tri-jet, T-tail design, and was in fact developed before the 727, in the late 1950s. The Trident is no longer in service although the Tu-154 still operates.
- In 1972, during an attempted coup d'état, jets from the Royal Moroccan Air Force fired upon the Boeing 727 of King Hassan II of Morocco while he was traveling to Rabat. After the aircraft survived the attack, the king awarded the plane a medal of honor.
- For many years, the 727-200 had the most heavily loaded tires of any production aircraft, with a maximum rated load of 45,240 lb per main landing gear tire when the aircraft is fully loaded. Due to complaints about damage to airport pavement caused by the 727, subsequent heavy transport airplanes such as the Boeing 747
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were designed with multiple sets of main gear tires to reduce the weight resting on each tire. The maximum tire load of the 727 was only recently exceeded by heavier variants of the
Boeing 777.
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