First 727 flies again

I cant get their web site to load. Did I read this correctly, they spent years restoring her just to park it? Or is it going to be kept in flyable condition?

 

Here are two YouTube videos, one showing the takeoff from Paine Field, and the other showing the arrival at the museum:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCDvcSe088k[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaWCEcnE3Mw[/ame]

 

Wonder if they had a 3 man crew aboard?

 

Those turbojets are even loud at idle...

Looks like the flew w/ gear down the whole long flight.


I prolly flew on it too, flew United a ton back then. Mostly 727's. ...and DC-8's.

 

I liked 727s and the flight attendants really liked their galley compared to the 737 galley. Seats were wide and comfy, too. I remember them having to shut down one of the APUs for take-offs out of Albuquerque (5185') in the summer. Could not take the bleed air and thrust loss. Times change. They also had to turn south to avoid the Manzano Mountains on east take-offs. The 737-700s just blast straight over them.

 

I'm really glad that they saved this example of the three holer. It's done well and looks right. I spent many hours working on that bird and many hours instructing the Commercial Airplanes population about what it was, and how it worked. Bit of emotion to see it again in the air. Great airplane.

 

I've seen that aircraft sitting there since 91', when I moved up here. Was hard to tell that it was ever being worked on. Obviously a long journey, and one that was undertaken by dedicated people (that's you Bob).

 

Looks like it was hush-kitted, too, somewhere along the line.

 

That's really neat! Can hardly wait to tour it when it opens at the museum. I hope the one day open up the 747 that's there.

Anyone know how they moved all the planes from one side of the road to the other, BTW? Must have closed the road, taken down a bunch of fences and wires and poles and stuff - or did they do something else? Didn't take long whatever they did....

Jedi

 

I wasn't there(again) but I imagine that they did it like they did with the B-52's in my day. They closed the road and towed the airplane across to the field. No need to take down poles, they were still fighting the Germans ...oops, wrong year. Come to think of it, they did the same thing with the B-17's in WW2. When I started work there in 1950 there were no impediments to towing anything across East Marginal Way, it was wide open. Now, we are several thousand feet to the south of Plant 2 (which is no longer with us) but the road is open and they still stop traffic to the delight of the locals..

 

There really isn't much of an interior in the 747 because it was used mostly for flight test.
IIRC it never entered commercial service.
Without a ceiling in it the main cabin is cavernous.
- There are pictures of it with a refueling boom under the tail at one point, testing viability with assorted aircraft including an SR-71.
- I remember seeing it fly over the Everett factory in the early 90's with one of those huge 777 engines strapped under one wing.
Rumor has it that it could fly on the 777 engine alone.

The planes at the museum were (probably) towed across the road at night.

 

Last REAL first class I've seen was a 727 on our honeymoon Jan 1, 2000 from Las Vegas to Miami, giant plush leather seats, reasonably good food, exceptionally happy and proud cabin crew. One even said when they seated us "We do first class right here". I've always been enamored with the 727, gorgeous plane. That was my last flight on a 727.

 

Bob- I was platinum back then and for about a dozen years until I semi-retired. Things were much nicer then and so were the flight crews and other passengers. You could even order special meals like cold shrimp. First class is not the same now.

 

Guess I missed that.

So do you think the hush-kits were then removed at some point?

All I see is a thrust reverser now (I think).

 

I remember working on a Country Club/Golf Course building under the northern flight path of SEATAC back in the 80's.

These 727's would climb out along this path with an ear splitting roar and crackling as they passed overhead, enough to hurt my ears pretty good. Every bit as loud as military "suck-and-blow" engines.

This is at 8:00 am over south Seattle (Burien), no concerns about keeping it quiet over populated areas then.

IIRC they were Northwestern Airlines and loudest of all, others not so much.
I'm guessing they weren't running the hush-kits.

 

A few years ago I got to see a 727 cargo hauler in Iraq do a pretty impressively steep climb out.... Will post pics if I can find them. They pulled up the gear right away then stayed maybe 5-10 feet above the runway for a few thousand feet then did their best to put it on its tail.

 

I have heard about pilots remarking that the 727-100 flying empty handles handles like a big fighter.
I'm still waiting to hear if anyone has rolled one yet.

 

From reading their blog, I don't think the airplane was hushkitted previously. However, FedEx donated some engines, and maybe the hush kits as well, just for this flight.

 

Had a good friend who was a pilot for American and he was sad to see the 3 holer go. He said the same thing about a light 727... It was a rocket at light weights, if you exceeded the mandated deck angles the airplane would climb like nobody's business.

 

Remember when Eastern Airlines referred to this feature in their marketing as the "Hush Jet?"

 

They originally called it the "WhisperJet", but I think that was mainly referring to the noise inside the cabin, not on the ground!

N7001U was not hush-kitted for this flight, which took 17 minutes, and the gear and flaps were down the whole way. There were 4 on board: the 3-man flight crew (all long-time 727 veterans) and the Boeing project manager.

 

My late friend and 727 pilot, J. Leffler , said that when he turned a landing over to his copilot , " I always had my hands under the wheel, palms up, to make sure that somebody didn't get a wing tip." I recall a stability and control guy telling me that the 727 had a faster roll rate than a P-51.

 

The first time I ever flew it was on a Braniff 727 from Dallas up to Minneapolis. That would have been around 1973. The last time was in the mid-90's from LGA down to Dallas. The flight was not very full and, it's true, the flight attendants did seem to have a special glow.

Are these planes still in service anywhere in the world now?