Prototype Last Flight

[dale gleason]

The link is   https://museumofflight.org/727-final-flight        

There's lots of folks on this forum who have flown Boeing Tri-Motors, tons. Some have flown all three seats in them. A few have flown this very same prototype being readied for its final flight. (Twenty-five years it took) There's even some here who have flown all three seats in this airframe; meaning that very airplane #1....

There's a few here who designed the flight control system, the wing.

Everyone likes them.

"If it ain't a Boeing, I ain't going," well, not unless it's a Douglas, or maybe a Lockheed......

dg


 

[Jim Svitko]

Wasn't it a 727 that D.B. Cooper hijacked and bailed out of with a suitcase full of cash?  As far as 727s go, that is the one I remember.  Just about everyone on this forum is old enough to remember that incident.

[david beazley]

I always liked riding in a 727.  my grandfather was a flight dispatcher at UAL and they were affectionately called 3-holers.

[Chris McMillin]

Thanks Dale.
Chris...

[RC Storick]

I ain't flying till the quit groping and radiating and if more took that stance they would quit doing it.

[wwwarbird]

I ain't flying till the quite groping and radiating and if more took that stance they would quit doing it.

 What?

[dale gleason]

Was that a Gabby Johnson quote?  "Ribbert!!"

[Pat Chewning]

I ain't flying till the quite groping and radiating and if more took that stance they would quit doing it.

I speak fluent jive, so I'll translate:

"I am not going to fly on airlines until they quit the excessive security theater (the groping and the X-rays).  If more people joined me in the boycott, they would quit doing it."

[Howard Rush]

David Fitzgerald flew that very airplane at UAL.

[RC Storick]

I speak fluent jive, so I'll translate:

"I am not going to fly on airlines until they quit the excessive security theater (the groping and the X-rays).  If more people joined me in the boycott, they would quit doing it."

Exacto-Mundo! It's a total farse

[Dan Berry]

My first airplane ride was in a tri-motor but it had a Ford logo. And wicker seats.

[Steve Thornton]

Thanks for the memories Dale!
Steve

[mike londke]

One of the coolest things I have ever done was to skydive out of a 727 jet. They brought an Amerijet cargo version to the World Freefall Convention in Quincy Illinois back in "95. After installing seatbelts and getting signed off by the FAA you could jump it for $59, a deal in my book. 185mph exit right down the air stair, just like DB Cooper. There were at least a dozen guys dressed like DB making the jump. Other jumps that week for me included a Super Constellation, hot air balloon, Bell Jet Ranger Helicopter, PT17 Stearman Bipe and a Martin 404. I miss those days.

[john ohnimus]

I cut my mechanic teeth on that old airplane. 1st heavy jet I ever worked, 1st one I got to sit and run the panel on and eventually the first jet I was trained to run-up. I was sad to see them go.. I would like to know whose idea it was to put that darn APU in the wheel well like they did... ARG!!!!

Tony O.

[Fredvon4]

Since every body is jumping (pun) all over relative to the OPs post

First model airplane flight...helping my dad launch a Ringmaster with McCoy spark .29 or .35 circa 1958~59 (too young to remember accurately)
First observation of Army Rocket launch...same time period White sands Missile range Red Canyon, Nike Hercules...later Wac Corporal and Nike Ajax
First passenger in a Jet... age 11 or 12 in a Fiftieth Red devil Squadron F-104 trainer Taichung Taiwan
First passenger in a Commercial air liner 1963 Boeing 707 Taipei to Portland
22 years army and 17 DoD civilian amassing well over 1 Million frequent flier Miles with American Airlines....Lots of free first class upgrades....grin
First time jumping out of a "able to land" aircraft... 1977 Fleigerhorst Kasern Hanau Germany UH-1H with T-10 .....later assigned to a airborne unit 2/27th Ranger Ft lewis ....jump school...and too many out the back of C-130s to remember

Never got to fly in the Ford tri motor in Germany but it was usually at every air show

[Chris McMillin]

One of the coolest things I have ever done was to skydive out of a 727 jet. They brought an Amerijet cargo version to the World Freefall Convention in Quincy Illinois back in "95. After installing seatbelts and getting signed off by the FAA you could jump it for $59, a deal in my book. 185mph exit right down the air stair, just like DB Cooper. There were at least a dozen guys dressed like DB making the jump. Other jumps that week for me included a Super Constellation, hot air balloon, Bell Jet Ranger Helicopter, PT17 Stearman Bipe and a Martin 404. I miss those days.

I thought I flew the N3N in '95 and '96 but it may have been '96 and '97 hosting the Inverted Biplane Jump. I flew the Staggerwing the first year too, Bushmaster Tri Motor the next. World Freefall was a gas.
Chris...

[mike londke]

I thought I flew the N3N in '95 and '96 but it may have been '96 and '97 hosting the Inverted Biplane Jump. I flew the Staggerwing the first year too, Bushmaster Tri Motor the next. World Freefall was a gas.
Chris...

Small world. I attended 95, 96, 97 and 98, and memories from convention can be fuzzy.  I would have to dig out my logbooks to be sure but you might have been my pilot on the Stearman jump. Do you have a pic of the plane?

[Dan McEntee]

Small world. I attended 95, 96, 97 and 98, and memories from convention can be fuzzy.  I would have to dig out my logbooks to be sure but you might have been my pilot on the Stearman jump. Do you have a pic of the plane?

   Mike;
   It wasn't a Stearman Chris flew the inverted biplane drop in, it was a yellow Navy N3N. I can't remember if Bud (the owner) had the Tweety Bird decal on the side of it at that time or not. The owner was Bud Fuchs and he owned the N3N, The Staggerwing, and the Bushmaster. He sold the Beech and N3N to buy the Bushmaster. Lots of interesting stories to go along with these that we'll have to save for some other time. I got to ride in the Stagger Beech and with Chris in the N3N.
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Norm Faith Jr.]

Wasn't it a 727 that D.B. Cooper hijacked and bailed out of with a suitcase full of cash?  As far as 727s go, that is the one I remember.  Just about everyone on this forum is old enough to remember that incident.

Yep! After that,  all passenger 727's had to be equipped with a "DB Cooper switch / vane."