Boeing 727: Encyclopedia II - Boeing 727 - Uses

Boeing 727 - Uses

In addition to domestic flights of medium range, the 727 proved extremely popular with international passenger airlines. The range of flights it could cover (and the additional safety built in with its third engine) 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. Federal Express began the cargo airline revolution in 1975 utilizing 727s. 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 Airlines.

Major airlines that have flown the jet include AeroSur, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Air Canada, Air France, ANA, Alitalia, American, Australian Airlines, Avianca, China Airlines, Copa, Delta Air Lines, Dominicana, Eastern Airlines, Federal Express, Iberia, Japan Airlines, JAT, Korean Air, Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, Lufthansa, Mexicana, Northwest Airlines, Olympic Airways, Pan Am, Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, Viasa and, among charter airlines, Carnival Airlines 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 727 that carried New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger was known as Spud One.

Boeing 727 - 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 airplane 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 Airlines 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. (See Eastern Airlines 727 History)

• 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 disputed.

• 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 stabiliser which houses a radar antenna. 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.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Uses", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki