Boeing 727

The Boeing 727 is a dreistrahliges airliner in low-wing design for the passenger and freight transport on medium and short routes of the U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing. By 1832 manufactured copies, the Boeing 727 was a long time the most produced jet airliner in the world, until it was replaced in the Boeing 737.

History

The first flight of the prototype took place on February 6, 1963. The pattern certification program has been flown with four machines. The approval was granted on 20 December 1963. The first machines of the Boeing 727 were delivered to the 1964 United Airlines. 1964 ended up with the 727, the first jet airliner at Tempelhof Airport.

The guy was constantly evolving. Thus, two versions, the 727-100 and the 727-200. The former base version was initially described as 727, only with the appearance of the 200 version, they got their type number. A change which was carried out according to customer on the 727-200, was, among other things, an extended to 6.10 m Hull to accommodate up to 189 passengers. The first flight of this version took place on 14 December 1967. An improved version, the 727-200 Adv ( anced ), received the turbofan engines from Pratt & Whitney JT8D - type 15, which increased the range.

The life cycle of the Boeing 727 ended with the introduction of version 727- 200F freighter in 1981., The last of 15 727- 200F was delivered on 18 September 1984, the only customers of the freight version FedEx.

To continue to fly to airports in metropolitan areas that have appropriate aircraft noise restrictions with these machines ( the 727 is classified as Stage II ), there are conversion kits to contain the noise to Stage III. These range from simple changes to the flap Hush kits that dozens more customers sold the main users of the FedEx 727, to new engines. The 727-100 was with three Rolls -Royce Tay 651 engines rebuilt; this version was then referred as 727- 100QF (Quiet Freighter, quieter freighter ). There were 58 of conversions for UPS Airlines and one for a private plane. In 727-200 the two outer engines with the JT8D -217 or -219 ( engines for the MD -80) could be replaced by the company Valsan, the middle was just a hush kit because the 24cm wider engine not installed there could be. These tags are referred to as Super 27; there were 22 of them in the passenger variant, 15 freighters and 17 VIP machines. In addition, winglets can be retrofitted, which increase the efficiency of the aircraft.

Construction

The type was based in large part on the successful model Boeing 707 and had in common with this trunk diameter and the front section. Up to the Boeing 717 (1998), the 727 was the only aircraft of the Boeing series, in which the engines were located at the rear, with engine- free wings and T-tail. At the rear, there was also a passenger staircase that could be extended under the tail. This passenger stairs allowed a 1971, known under the pseudonym DB Cooper hijackers the jump during the flight. After several imitators also bailed within a short time of such stairs, retrofitting ordered the FAA 1972. They have been retrofitted with a bolt which automatically locked by the air flow during flight stairs. Some airlines put the rear stairs quietly.

The swept wing was aerodynamically very well managed and cared for very good high-speed flight performance. To keep the slow flight characteristics to tolerable levels, extensive buoyancy aids were used. So was the high-lift system composed of one slat and three Krueger flaps per wing leading edge and triple - slotted flaps on the trailing edges.

Besides the pure passenger or cargo version also following options could be ordered:

  • C - equipment for passenger and cargo operations; A conversion could be done in about two hours. 53 pieces - 100C.
  • QC - Quick -Change equipment for passenger and cargo operations; A conversion could be done in about 30 minutes, the passenger seats were mounted on rollers for the cargo floor. 111 Piece 100QC.
  • C-22 - mainly equipped as a military transport aircraft version. Three piece -100, -200 a.

Use

Of the 1832 made ​​Boeing 727 were 1831 machines, including 1260 copies of the series -200/-200Adv./-200F, delivered to customers. An aircraft series -100 remained as a test aircraft manufacturer Boeing. The cessation of production was due to increased requirements for environmental protection, along especially with a significantly reducing fuel consumption - targets that were only partially realized with the 727. In addition, Boeing offered already as a replacement, the Boeing 757. Furthermore, the 727 still had not counted contemporary three-man cockpit, and the deletion of the flight engineer from the standard cockpit crew in all future types of machines was for the airlines a significant part of the cost reduction.

Lufthansa also put this machine in 1964 under the nickname " Europajet " in more than 50 pieces a. Your model name contained - like that of all built for Lufthansa Boeing - Boeing customer number 30 subtype A basic version of the 727 was for Lufthansa as a combi - freighter eg than 727- 30C respectively. The last three are still active ex- Lufthansa aircraft flying in 2014 by Clementine Aviation West Palm Beach ( N606DH, ex D- ABIH " Wiesbaden " ), by TAME for the Fuerza Aérea Ecuatoriana (FAE -620, ex D- ABKQ " Mainz " ) and as a government machine in the Force Aérienne du Congo ( 9Q -CDC, ex D- ABIS " Fribourg "). Hapag -Lloyd Flug put the 727 even in long-distance transport of Hanover and Stuttgart to Mombasa.

Under the identification C-22, the U.S. Air Force received a total of four machines ( three 727-100 and 727-200 ). These are primarily used by the Air National Guard.

The Boeing 727 is also used for parabolic flights. This is achieved for 20-25 seconds by the Flight of a parabolic weightlessness.

Some machines have been converted into so-called VIP aircraft. In the spring of 2008, the Saudi Arabian Ogre Group of the Government of Afghanistan has a VIP 727-200 given as a government machine. This machine had previously been rebuilt at Jet Aviation in Basel.

Today ( 2013) is the 727 almost disappeared from the scheduled passenger operation, only Iran Aseman Airlines and Ariana Afghan Airlines fly more than one copy. Another 100 from the cargo aircraft are in operation, the largest operator was long FedEx, the 167 pieces flew in 1993, but einstellten the operation of the last machines by the end of June 2013. Popular is the 727 as a Government aircraft in a number of African countries; so is Mali the last active ex- Hapag -Lloyd machine (ex D- AHLV ) as a government plane.

Incidents

A total of 94 aircraft of this type are lost in crashes and crash landings gone - 1.22 and 0.72 machines per 1 million flights with / without casualties. These were at the time of distribution of 727 low values ​​; However, today's airplanes achieve much better results. The recent incidents since 2007 were:

  • On January 9, 2011 Iran Air flight 277 crashed off the north-western Iran. Survived out of 104 inmates 27
  • July 8th, 2011 crashed Hewa Bora Airways Flight 952, a 727-022 (WL ) as it approached Kisangani (Democratic Republic of the Congo ) from. 74 of 118 people on board were killed.
  • On June 2, 2012 on rolled at Kotoka International Airport ( Accra, Ghana ) is a 727- 200F of the Allied Air in heavy storm the runway and crashed on a main road in a Mercedes- Benz T1, a taxi and a cyclist. While the four crew members suffered only minor injuries, 10 people in a minibus, a Taxiinsassin and the cyclist died.

Specifications

727-100: February 1, 1964 Eastern 727- 100C: April 13, 1966 Northwest Airlines

727-200: December 11, 1967 Northeast Airlines 727-200 Adv: March 9, 1971 Lufthansa 727- 200F: June 27, 1983 FedEx

727-100: October 18, 1972 Dominicana 727- 100C: March 9, 1971 South African Airways

727-200: August 16, 1972 Western Airlines 727-200 Adv: April 6, 1983 U.S. Airways 727- 200F: September 18, 1984 FedEx

727-100: 407 727- 100C: 164

727-200 ( Adv ): 1,245 727- 200F: 15

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