Boeing 727

Boeing 727
Champion Air Boeing 727-200
Type:	Three - engine narrow-body aircraft
Design country:	United States
Manufacturer:	Boeing Commercial Airplanes
First flight:	February 6, 1963
Commissioning:	February 1, 1964
Production time:	1963 to 1984
Number of pieces:	1,832

The Boeing 727 is a three- engine airliner from the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing in a low- wing design for passenger and freight transport on medium and short-haul routes . With 1,832 units produced, the Boeing 727 was for a time the most built jet airliner in the world, until it was replaced by the Boeing 737 .

history

The first flight of the prototype took place on February 6, 1963. The type certification program was flown with four machines. Approval was granted on December 20, 1963. The first aircraft of the Boeing 727 were delivered to United Airlines in 1964 . In 1964, the 727, the first jet airliner, landed at Tempelhof Airport .

The Boeing 727 has been continuously developed. So two versions were created, first the 727-100 and soon after the 727-200. The first-mentioned basic version was initially only referred to as 727, it only got its type number with the appearance of the 200 version. One change that was made to the 727-200 at the customer's request was, among other things, a 6.10 m longer hull to accommodate up to 189 passengers. In this extended version (727-200), the galley is no longer located on the right in the middle of the aircraft, but at the front right opposite the main boarding door, so that the central galley door on the right-hand side - the characteristic of the shorter 727-100 par excellence - is omitted instead is at the front. The 727-200 also has an emergency exit door at the rear of the engines on both sides (occasionally also on some 727-100s, for example on the British Dan-Air ). Another detail is that on the 727-200, the center engine opening above the fuselage is no longer oval (as it was on the 727-100), but round.

The first flight of the extended Boeing 727-200 took place on December 14, 1967. The first customer was Northeast Airlines . An improved version, the 727-200 Adv (anced), received the turbofan engines of the type Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15 , which increased the range.

FedEx 727-200 (converted to a freighter) with the cargo door open and hush kits

The Boeing 727 production cycle ended with the launch of the 727-200F freighter version in 1981. The last of 15 727-200Fs was delivered on September 18, 1984 to FedEx , the only freighter customer .

727 Super 27. The wider outer engines are clearly visible.

In order to continue to be able to fly to airports in metropolitan areas that have corresponding aircraft noise restrictions with these machines (the 727 is classified as Stage II ), conversion kits are available to curb the development of noise on Stage III . These range from simple changes to the landing flaps to hush kits , which the main user of the 727 FedEx sold to dozen other customers, to new engines. The 727-100 could be converted with three Rolls-Royce Tay 651 engines; this version was then used as 727-100QF ( Quiet Freighter , quieter freighter called). There were 58 conversions for UPS Airlines and one for a private plane. On the 727-200, the two outer engines could be exchanged with the JT8D-217 or -219 (engines for the MD-80 ) by the Valsan company, the middle one only received a hush kit, since the 24 cm wider engine is not there could be installed. These conversions are referred to as Super 27 ; there were 22 of them in the passenger variant, 15 for freighters and 17 for VIP machines. In addition, winglets can be retrofitted, which increase the efficiency of the aircraft.

construction

Boeing 727-200 with extended stern stairs and retrofitted winglets

The type is largely based on the successful Boeing 707 model and has the fuselage diameter and bow section in common with it. Until the Boeing 717 (1998), the 727 was the only aircraft in the Boeing series in which the engines are arranged at the rear, with a T-tail unit and engine-free wings. In the rear area there is also a passenger staircase that can be extended under the tail unit. In 1971, these passenger stairs enabled a hijacker, known under the pseudonym DB Cooper, to take off during the flight. After several imitators jumped off such stairs within a short time, the FAA ordered a conversion in 1972. They were retrofitted with a bolt that automatically locked the stairs through the airflow during the flight. Some airlines put the back stairs completely still.

The wing swept back is aerodynamically very successful and ensures very good high-speed flight performance. In order to keep the slow flight characteristics within the required framework, extensive buoyancy aids were used. The high-lift system consists of one slat and three Kruger flaps per wing leading edge and triple slotted flaps on the wing trailing edges.

United States Air Force C-22B

What is unusual for a short- and medium-haul aircraft is the presence of a device for emergency fuel drainage.

In addition to the pure passenger or freight version, the following options could also be ordered:

• C - equipment for passenger and cargo operations; this variant could be converted in about two hours. 53 pieces -100C.
• QC - Quick Change Equipment for Passenger and Freight Operations; a conversion could be done in about 30 minutes, the passenger seats were mounted on castors for the cargo floor. 111 pieces -100QC.
• C-22 - military version mainly equipped as a transport aircraft. Three pieces -100, one -200.

use

Cockpit of a Boeing 727

Of the Boeing 727s produced in 1832, 1831 machines, including 1260 units of the -200 / -200Adv ./- 200F series, were delivered to customers. An aircraft from the -100 series remained with the manufacturer Boeing as a test aircraft. Production was discontinued due to increased requirements for environmental protection, especially associated with the demand for significantly reduced fuel consumption - goals that could only be partially achieved with the 727. Furthermore, Boeing already offered the Boeing 757 as a replacement . The 727 also had an outdated three-man cockpit, and the removal of the flight engineer from the standard cockpit crew for all future machine types was a significant part of the cost reduction for the airlines.

Lufthansa Boeing 727-200 1983

The Lufthansa put this machine in 1964 under the name "Europajet" with more than 50 pieces one. Its model name contained - like that of all Boeings built for Lufthansa - the Boeing customer subtype number 30. A basic version of the 727 for Lufthansa as a combi freighter was z. B. designated as 727-30C. The last flight of a 727 at Lufthansa was on October 4, 1992. In 2015 the last four ex-Lufthansa planes flew at Clementine Aviation West Palm Beach (N606DH, ex D-ABIH "Wiesbaden"), at TAME for the Fuerza Aérea Ecuatoriana (FAE-620, ex D-ABKQ "Mainz"), at Lyca Cargo on the Ivory Coast (TY-FSJ, ex D-ABIA "Pforzheim") and as a government machine in the Force Aérienne du Congo (9Q-CDC, ex D -ABIS "Freiburg"). Hapag-Lloyd Flug even used the 727 in long-haul traffic from Hanover and Stuttgart to Mombasa .

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

During a record-breaking 37 years, from delivery to the company's insolvency, a 727-100 series aircraft with registration number CP-861 flew only for one company, Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano .

The Boeing 727-227 (F) with the serial number 21243 was converted twice, flew as a freighter for AmeriJet , was labeled ZeroG there from August 2004 and was used for parabolic flights . The flight of a parabola achieves almost weightlessness for 20-25 seconds.

Iran Aseman Airlines 727 EP-ASA built in 1980, 2017 still active

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

At the beginning of the 2010s, the 727 had almost disappeared from regular passenger service, and in the following years most of the remaining operators put their 727 out of service. Only Iran Aseman Airlines still used three copies of version -228 (Adv) (EP-ASA, EP-ASB, EP-ASD) on passenger flights before the airline finally took the model out of operation after a last flight on January 13, 2019 took.

About 70 of the cargo planes are still in service. For a long time , the largest operator was FedEx , which flew 167 units in 1993, but ceased operations at the end of June 2013. The 727 is also popular as a government aircraft in a number of African countries; Mali uses the last still active ex-Hapag-Lloyd aircraft (ex D-AHLV) as a government aircraft.

The British Oil Spill Response Limited is two converted former FedEx Boeing 727 as crop dusters against oil spills a (G-OSRA and G-OSRB).

Incidents

→ Main article : List of incidents involving the Boeing 727

From the first flight in 1963 to February 2019, the Boeing 727 suffered a total of 119 total losses. In 56 of them, 4121 people were killed.

Technical specifications

Parameter	Boeing 727-100 data	Data of the Boeing 727-200 Adv.
Application area	Short / medium distance
length	40.59 m	46.69 m
span	32.92 m
height	10.36 m
Hull diameter	3.76 m
Wing area	157.93 m²
Wing swept	32 °
Wing extension	6.86
Wing loading	251 to 437 kg / m²	287 to 602 kg / m²
Maximum number of seats	131	189
Empty weight	39,780 kg	45,360 kg
Maximum takeoff weight	73,275 kg	95,030 kg
Cruising speed	926 km / h	965 km / h
Service ceiling	11,400 m	12,192 m
Range	3056 km	4020 km
First customer delivery	727-100: February 1, 1964 Eastern Air Lines 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
Last customer delivery	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 US Airways 727-200F: September 18, 1984 FedEx
Total production	727-100: 407 727-100C: 164 C. 0 0	727-200 (adv.): 1245 727-200F: 15 (dv.) 00
Number of engines	3
Design of the engines	Turbofan engine Pratt & Whitney JT8D -1/7/9	Turbofan engine Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9A / 11/15/17 / 17R
Thrust of the engines	62.3 to 64.5 kN each	64.5 to 77.4 kN each

See also

• List of aircraft types

literature

• Wolfgang Borgmann: The aircraft stars: Boeing 727 . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-613-04099-1 .

Web links

Commons : Boeing 727  album with pictures, videos and audio files

• The 727 on the Boeing website
• Boeing 727, very detailed text with a lot of technical data (source: FliegerWeb.com)
• Description of the Boeing 727 on civil aviation net

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.cityairport-berlin.de/gescallg.htm
2. ↑ https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Dan-Air_London_B-727_G-BAFZ.jpg
3. ↑ http://www.fedex.com/us/hushkit/helpdecide/customers.html?link=4
4. ↑ PHOTO: FedEx Ending 35 Years of 727 Operations ( Memento from February 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ http://www.airspeedtrusts.com/library/Super27/Super27Presentation.pdf
6. ↑ 727 Family. (No longer available online.) Boeing.com, archived from the original on May 24, 2011 ; accessed on June 18, 2020 (English). 
7. ^ E2 and E3 - The Second and Third Test Airplanes. rbogash.com, accessed January 16, 2013 . 
8. ↑ http://rzjets.net/aircraft/?page=2&searchTyp=727&opid1=427
9. ↑ Lufthansa technology - the story. Lufthansa Technik AG, accessed on January 30, 2016 . 
10. ↑ Weightless flight in the Boeing 727 through parabolic flight
11. ↑ Aero 5/2008, p. 55
12. ↑ https://www.aero.de/news-30741/Letzt-Passagierfluege-mit-der-Boeing-727.html
13. ↑ http://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/aircraft/quick?ac_manufacturer=BOE&ac_aircraft=B727&page=0
14. ↑ Boeing 727-100 QF ( Memento from January 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ http://www.ch-aviation.ch/portal/aircraft/quick?ac_manufacturer=BOE&ac_aircraft=B727&page=1
16. ↑ With a Boeing 727 against oil disasters , accessed on May 10, 2016
17. ↑ Accident statistics Boeing 727 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 6, 2019.