24 votes
Accepted

Did the FAA order the installation of "Cooper vanes?"

The answer to both of your questions is "yes". The FAA ordered, in effect, the installation of "Cooper Vanes" and did do so in 1972. The reason you could not find the answer may have been that the ...
DeltaLima's user avatar
  • 83.1k
19 votes

Did DB Cooper's aircraft land safely with the aft stairs open?

The aft airstair was partially deployed for the duration of the approach and landing. The transcripts of ATC communications between NW305 and various ground stations are freely available (and a ...
Peter Schilling's user avatar
13 votes
Accepted

Was the B727's wing supercritical (even if not so designed)?

I've got an aged book on pre-design of aircraft, which states that the B727 wing thickness was 13% at root and 9% at tip, average thickness 11% chord. $M_{M0}$ = 0.9, first flight of prototype is ...
Koyovis's user avatar
  • 61.6k
6 votes
Accepted

What is the source of emergency power for a 727?

According this rather detailed page on the 727's engines: To restart in flight, an "air start" may be attempted. The start switch should be placed in the FLIGHT START position which will arm ...
bclarkreston's user avatar
  • 3,686
6 votes
Accepted

How can a Cessna cut the wing of a Boeing?

An airliner wing is built to be as light as possible. Its strength is calculated to withstand the stresses of flying, i.e. lift equally distributed over the wing, bird strikes on the leading edge. ...
Hobbes's user avatar
  • 10.2k
5 votes

Did DB Cooper's aircraft land safely with the aft stairs open?

I am a B727 pilot to this day (5,000 hours on type) and I am pretty sure that if one tried to land a 727 with the airstair locked down, there would be a considerable amount of damage and the ...
Raffles's user avatar
  • 1,656
4 votes

How can a Cessna cut the wing of a Boeing?

Large objects are fragile. Pretty much any two airplane-sized objects, when colliding at airplane-like speeds, will both be damaged by the collision. The reason for this is the square–cube law. As ...
Tanner Swett's user avatar
  • 5,771
3 votes

What do the Boeing 727 airstair tests tell us about D B Cooper?

The tests say nothing about DB Cooper the man, his motives, or whether he survived the jump, but they do provide some insight into the experience of exiting a 727. However you might envision it ...
Michael Hall's user avatar
  • 25.8k
3 votes

What do the Boeing 727 airstair tests tell us about D B Cooper?

Yes. The result suggests that the hydraulic actuators for the door stall out at that extension, that is, they can't push any harder against air loads, probably by design by limiting extension pressure ...
John K's user avatar
  • 131k
3 votes

Why was the B727 flight engineer referred to as the third crewman

Mainly because they were #3 in the command structure, which is more or less rooted in maritime practices. Pilot #1, Copilot #2, Flight Engineer #3. That is, if the pilot is incapacitated, the copilot ...
John K's user avatar
  • 131k
3 votes

What airfoil type is used on the B727-200F?

My favourite book for questions like this is Obert’s Aerodynamic Design of Transport Aircraft. It shows pressure distribution on the 727 wing and gives some AIAA papers as sources. If you track these ...
Cpt Reynolds's user avatar
  • 4,797
2 votes

Was the B727's wing supercritical (even if not so designed)?

The 727 wing is a derivative of the earlier Boeing 720 wing which incorporated the leading edge glove, an added feature ahead of and atop the old airfoil from the fuselage to the inboard engine pylon. ...
robert austin's user avatar
2 votes

Why was the B727 flight engineer referred to as the third crewman

The flight engineer is a required flight crewmember on the 727, one of three. This is a natural way to describe the flight engineer, and I don't see why pressure or precedent would be required.
Chris's user avatar
  • 15k
1 vote

How much aluminum was used in the Boeing 727?

It may not be possible to provide a precise number for a question with so many variables. Likely, the amount differed between variants. Without speaking to a materials acquisitions director from ...
Aaron Holmes's user avatar
  • 4,837
1 vote

No available data on the 727-200C

So far as the FAA is concerned there is no 727-200C at least not that ever carried a type certificate. The 727 series has a common type cert which you can find here and it has no listing of a 727-200C ...
Dave's user avatar
  • 101k

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