The Jet Age began in earnest when Britain's four-engined De Havilland Comet 4 began flying the Atlantic. There was more to the world than London, New York, Tokyo and Sydney.
From the start of the jet age, the need for a short haul jet to serve smaller communities was obvious, but at Boeing, every engineer was working to create the 707. Boeing was able to create a short haul stopgap with the Boeing 720, a lighter, shorter version of the 707. The 720 first flew on November 23, 1959 and went into service on July 5, 1960 with United Airlines. Despite its interim nature, Boeing sold 154 720s, many of which remained in service well into the 1980s, demonstrating the size of the market for a local jet, and the quality of Boeing's products at that time.
Heritage Special: Boeing’s First Short-Haul Jet, the 720
A robust airframe and excellent low-speed handling were required for a bus stop jet to be able to take off and land on short runways. By 1957, a team of 40 engineers were already working on the machine that would become the 727, because the market needed a custom solution.
The initial goal was for a gross weight of 61 tonnes and the ability to fly off a runway of 5,000 feet without leaving anything behind. To achieve the most impressive lift coefficients with a minimum of structural weight and mechanical complexity, the first year of the programme was spent on low speed aerodynamic research and development.
Customers were canvassed for their preferences. Eastern Airlines wanted at least three engines for its overwater flights to the islands of the Caribbean, since twins in those days were limited to routes that did not venture more.
de Havilland decided on a three-engined configuration with a high T-tail at the end of the 1950s in Britain. Lord Douglas of Kirtleside, chairman of British European Airways, suggested that Boeing and de Havilland work together to create a single design. When Boeing got access to de Havilland's technical data regarding the placement of an engine in the tail, they were able to develop the 727, which beat the 727 into the air by more than a year.
With design studies affirming their brush with the British, the 727 improved on its competitor, the Trident, with bigger, heavier, more powerful, and better runway performance.
The short runways at New York's La Guardia airport were an obvious standard that had to be achieved. US airlines wanted to provide jet service on the 4,600 foot strip in Key West, Florida. The wing was able to use slats, flaps, slots, and spoilers to achieve its aims.
The first Boeing with an auxiliary power unit for providing electrics, air conditioning, and engine start without relying on ground power would be the 727. The stairs were not needed for ground handling because the staircase swing down from under the tail.
In the summer of 1962, a team of 5,000 workers at Boeing's Renton facility made the first 727. The aircraft was moved to the ground test area next to the assembly hall in November, after most of the fuselage and cockpit were under construction. N7001U was rolled out in a formal ceremony on November 27 with orders already placed by some of the biggest names in the industry.
The final prepartions for the first flight included high speed taxi tests by the flight crew of Lew Wallick, who was the senior experimental test pilot for Boeing.
On February 9, 1963, the first flight took off at 1133 local after a ground run of just over 3000 feet. After a successful two hour sortie, the aircraft would be based for the first ten hours of its test programme, performing general handling and airworthiness checks for the FAA. A compressor surge on the centre engine at the point of rotation, an irritation that was partially solved with the installation of vanes inside the duct, was one of the reasons why the flight had been a success.
The test programme took place in the Seattle area, as well as secondments to Edwards AFB in California, Albuquerque in New Mexico, and Denver. After its first flight on March 12th, N72700 joined the test programme.
The first ship did more than 400 hours of structural and flutter tests while the second did more than 300 hours. A third 727, N7002U, took to the air on April 10 to complete most of the detailed handling and aerodynamic loading trials. The last test aircraft was originally N7003U and was used as a demonstrator for over one hundred thousand miles.
The first three machines were handed over to United and Eastern Airlines in the late 1960's. The first 727 revenue flight was operated by Eastern Airlines on February 1, 1964. The game was played with a San Francisco to Denver flight.
The 727 was performing well in service. The great leap into the Jet Age was only fifty years after the Wright Brothers first heavier-than-air flight, and the airline captains of the era had served decades on the flightdecks of propliners that were not only slow but, thanks to the prop wash over.
Full flaps on the 727 created enormous amounts of drag in landing configuration, to be countered by an iron fist of thrust pounding out of the jet pipes of the JT8Ds in the tail.
The high cruising altitudes far above the weather, the mechanical simplicity of the new powerplants, and the fact that most airline pilots converted off piston-powered props thrived on the jets. Some struggled with the fast pace. Some washed out of the typerating courses and went back to work on props. Some people made it through the jet courses.
On August 16, 1965, United 389 crashed into Lake Michigan northeast of Chicago while attempting to land. On November 8, American 383 lost altitude in the circuit for landing at Cincinnati and crashed into terrain below the elevation of the runway. The sink rate for United 227 was 2,300 feet per minute and it smashed into the ground short of the runway. On February 4, 1966, All Nippon 060 crashed into Tokyo Bay on its way to Haneda airport.
The death toll from the four accidents was 263, with only 52 survivors in Salt Lake City. The travelling public began to avoid the new Boeing, and Congressional committees even discussed pulling the type's airworthiness certificate with the FAA. The new jets had to be flown by the numbers and there was nothing wrong with the 727. Life and death at the leading edge of technology were still being figured out by the airlines in the defence of accident-prone early jet pilots. The ultra high drag forty degree flap setting was banned by most airlines, and some went as far as to make a metal plate across the flap lever slot to prevent it from being selected.
The greatest mystery of the Jet Age was solved on November 24, 1971, when a Northwest Orient Airlines 727-151 was hijacked by passenger Dan and flew the last leg of a classic bus stop from Washington DC to Seattle. After dropping the passengers off at their destination in Seattle and getting $200,000 in parachutes, N467US was back in the air. Cooper was never found after he jumped off the steps, and his true identity was never known. The only unsolved episode of air piracy in history was solved in 1980, when a small boy found a few waterlogged bundles of the ransom on the banks of the Columbia River. After three episodes, a vane was installed on 727s worldwide, blowing into place by the rush of air, making it impossible to extend the stairs inflight.
A stretched version of the 727-100 was on the drawing board after it was in service, twenty feet (6.1 metres) longer thanks to a ten foot (three metres) plug inserted ahead of the wing. Modifications were made to the intake for the number two engine round. After FAA certification on November 30, 1967, the first 727-200 entered Yellowbird Service out of Boston with Northeast Airlines. The maximum gross weight of the first 310 727-200s was the same as the 727-100, 169,000 lbs, which meant less payload or less fuel. The early -200s were pure people-movers, with constrained range, and retained Boeing's classic 1960s Penthouse interior with open hat rack and large dome lights in the aisle.
After building a total of 881 727s of both fuselage lengths, Boeing launched the 727-200 Advanced, which took advantage of new and more powerful JT8D-15 variant, and added upgraded flight deck instruments and updated passenger accomodation. The updated cockpit instruments and Widebody interiors of the modern 707-320B Advanced and the modern 737-200 Advanced were included. The maximum takeoff weight of the new engines was raised to 191,000 lbs and the range of the 727-200A was increased by fifty percent. The first 727-200 Advanced was delivered to All Nippon Airways on June 30, 1972 and was a huge hit.
In the United States, the 727 was the definitive short and medium-haul bus. Braniff, Eastern, Western, United, American, Continental, Northwest Orient, TWA criss-crossed the country with their trijets.
The regional hardware of choice at Air Algerie, Syrianair, Alia (Jordan), Kuwait Airways, Libyan Arab Airways, Iraqi Airways were the 727. The first aircraft at the now-mighty Emirates Airline was a pair of secondhand 727s. The Two Airline Policy in Australia allowed the state-owned TAA and privately-owned Ansett to operate essentially the same fleets and schedules. Australians took their first flights on the 727s.
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