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P_7878

The B727 and B707 side-by-side... (20 Pics) ...

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While exploring the DC-9 (for one of my earlier posts) and noting the fact that DC-9 was a clean-sheet design from Douglas, I came across another fact, I was aware of before, that, B727 was derived from the B707. Regarding the linkage between the trijet short-haul (domestic) B727 and the quad-jet long-haul (transoceanic) B707, I'd somehow thought 727 was a smaller scale version of 707...not really so...at least dimensionally speaking...e.g., these two following measurements caught me by a bit of surprise.

  1. The 727 was actually a bit longer than the 707 (727-200 at 153 ft 2 in vs. 707-300 at 152 ft 11 in).
  2. The 727 and 707 fuselage widths were nearly identical (~148 in).

This is because, the 727, airframe-wise, was a direct derivative of the 707 (that had flown 5 years earlier). The 727 and the 707 have many similar features. For example, (see the interior [VC] images, below), the flightdeck/cockpit and autopilot might look near-identical (especially to the (simmer) non-Pros like I am...🙂...), except for the (3 vs. 4) no. of engines, engine gauges, fire-handles, and throttles etc. Of course, each of these two a/c stands by itself, distinctly, and impressively, in its own right.... being quite different in other aspects (wingspan, thrust, and range etc.). The 727, single-handedly would replace multiple transports of the time, Jets such as (B707, DC-8) and Props such as (DC-4/DC-6/DC-7). In the domestic (short to medium-haul) twin-jet market, when the 727 flew first in Feb. 1963, the BAC-111 was within 5 months of first flight, the DC-9 was still 2 years away from first flight, the B737 was 4 years away from first flight, and of course, the unforgettable SE 210 Caravelle had already made history, many years before, as one of the world's very first twinjet airliners (first flight 27 May 1955). Caravelle was a true pioneer. Among the pack of four aft-mounted twinjets (BAC-111, Sud Caravelle, Douglas DC-9, Fokker 28), the French Caravelle was the first to fly. It was a stunningly beautiful a/c. In its honor, I've included, below, one image of the Caravelle (VI-R) as the demarcation between my two groups of images of 707 and 727. (Do notice the uniquely distinctive and artistic teardrop-shaped cabin windows on the Caravelle.)

The legendary Boeing 707 is well-known to us. Though a narrow-body (the first widebody was A300), it was nonetheless one of the finest-looking (sleek and graceful) planes that Boeing had built...before the 1960s... that would set the trend by opening up the transoceanic skies for (regular) commercial air travel for normal people like us... It's said that the iconic 707 catalyzed the jet age. It entered service on October 26th, 1958, with Pan Am. Pan Am’s Boeing 707-121, Clipper America, N711PA, departed New York Idlewild on an 8-hour 41-minute flight to Paris Le Bourget, with a fuel stop at Gander, Newfoundland. To symbolize that historic moment, I've shown, below, a set of (take-off) pictures of a Pan Am 707, not the exact model as above, but of same livery and color-scheme. The (original) 707-100 was powered by the most powerful engines available in U.S. at the time, Pratt & Whitney JT3C engines. My Pan Am Boeing 707-321, below, (Reg. N885PA), Clipper Northern Light, was equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT3D engines.

As for the 727, United Airlines had received the first example, but it was Eastern Air Lines (5 pictures, below) that flew the first 727 passenger service on February 1, 1964. The B727, in spite of a few high-profile (initial) mishaps, primarily attributed to "flap 40 setting" (which setting, in in my make-believe world, didn't seem to pose any issue...🙂...), would out survive the initial crisis and go on to become one of the most popular a/c among operators world-wide. Thus, the B727 revolutionized commercial aviation in 1964. In my pictures below of (N8147N, a B727-100), the term "Whisperjet" that you see, was a marketing term used by Eastern for their B727 aircraft, as the plane was quieter than any other jet-powered a/c of the time. Of course, the noise of those screaming JT8Ds were known to be legendary too, the 727 been one of the noisiest aircraft around...! The JT3Ds (seen in my B707 pictures) generally had higher thrust than most versions of the JT8Ds (seen in my 727 pictures), and also larger (See the close-up shots of those powerful JT3D engines on this B707-300).

Most 727 avionics and automation, though advanced for its time, included just an ADF, two VORs and ILS and DME (no CDU/FMS and no INS). My B727, here, doesn't have INS either, though, apparently, some 727s were later fitted with INS systems. And, for my B707, below, I've equipped it with a (pop-up) CIVA INS unit (see pictures below) for navigational purpose, since the original SIM didn't come equipped with any, and GPS navigation would be disrespectful to the 707 pedigree...🙂.... The B707 had a service ceiling of 42,000 feet and max Mach no. of 0.87. Here, as seen in my pictures below, those JT3D engines have (powerfully and effortlessly) helped me climb to 30,000 cruise altitude, and to a cruise speed of 0.83 Mach (see flightdeck image, last but one shot of the Pan Am set).

Hope you enjoy this (mixed) collection of pictures of these two classic planes, from my virtual world, in the colors of two of my most favorite (bygone) airlines...! 

Thanks for viewing and your interest...!!

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Nice story, nice shots too, and a Caravelle as a bonus, cool

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All my FSX/P3D repaints are here on Avsim, for my MSFS repaints, go to FS.2

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Love those classic birds, beautiful shots !

Still in hope they find at anytime her way into MSFS..

cheers 😉

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My Rig : Intel I7-7820X 8 Core ( 16 Threads ) @ 4,0, ASUS Prime X299 A II,  64 GB 3600-17 Trident Z, 750W Corsair CX750 80+ Bronze,  MSI 8GB RTX 2080 Super Ventus XS OC, WD 4TB and WD 6TB 7200 HD,  Win10 V.21H2, in use 3x 4K monitors 2x32 Samsung 1x27 LG  3840x2160.

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Great story and pictures to go with it, P_7878 !!  I also noticed that you sneaked in another plane and it took me a few secs to find out that is is the French made Caravelle. Oh well...the 707 made it maiden flight into Paris Le Bourget, so there might be even a connection here 😉😉

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Any attempt to stretch fuel is guaranteed to increase headwinds

My specs: AMD Radeon RX6700XT, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 32GB RAM, 34" monitor, screen resolution: 2560x1080

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Excellent post and shots!  Whenever I think of the 707 I think of The Beatles.  And look on top of the wing, back then that was one heck of a lot of vortex generators planted there.

The 727 was affectionately called the Lead Sled because it was fast, extremely fast and took a while to slow down and whenever I think of it I think of two things, DB Cooper and rigging the wing cables for the flight controls.  The cockpit was indeed ancient by our standerds and it still amazes me that they even got to their destination.  But it's a testament of the skills they had mastering VOR to VOR navigation and ADF as well as ATC. 

I miss them in the skies.  So many iconic jets just corroding in the desert.

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Jack Sawyer

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Nice comparison. I like the way you sneaked that Caravelle shot in.

John

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On 10/12/2022 at 9:44 PM, johnbow72 said:

Fine set of shots . 

Thank you much, John...!!

 

On 10/13/2022 at 12:29 AM, jankees said:

Nice story, nice shots too, and a Caravelle as a bonus, cool

Thanks for chiming in, Jan....Glad you liked and noticed the good old Caravelle ....🙂....

 

On 10/13/2022 at 1:05 AM, pmplayer said:

Love those classic birds, beautiful shots !

Still in hope they find at anytime her way into MSFS..

cheers 😉

Appreciated the comments and thoughts, pmplayer...! I know you love such classic birds.... these will gradually come to your desktop...for sure...because you're not only one over there who admire these classics...Personally, without occasional doses of these classics, this (virtual) aviator's life seems incomplete...🙂...

 

On 10/13/2022 at 5:53 AM, bernd1151 said:

Great story and pictures to go with it, P_7878 !!  I also noticed that you sneaked in another plane and it took me a few secs to find out that is is the French made Caravelle. Oh well...the 707 made it maiden flight into Paris Le Bourget, so there might be even a connection here 😉😉

Thanks, bernd.... you must have thought...hmm... this strange plane, here, neither has 4 engines nor 3 engines....🙂...Yes, Paris–Le Bourget seemed to be the go-to-airport in those days...especially after all Lindbergh had made history by landing there....

 

On 10/13/2022 at 7:41 AM, Jack_Sawyer said:

Excellent post and shots!  Whenever I think of the 707 I think of The Beatles.  And look on top of the wing, back then that was one heck of a lot of vortex generators planted there.

The 727 was affectionately called the Lead Sled because it was fast, extremely fast and took a while to slow down and whenever I think of it I think of two things, DB Cooper and rigging the wing cables for the flight controls.  The cockpit was indeed ancient by our standards and it still amazes me that they even got to their destination.  But it's a testament of the skills they had mastering VOR to VOR navigation and ADF as well as ATC. 

I miss them in the skies.  So many iconic jets just corroding in the desert.

Appreciated these notes and comments, Jack, especially coming from you...I was reading a bit about rigging of wing cables for tension etc....that job seems more like art than science...of course, I'm speaking here from the easy chair...🙂, while you're speaking from RW exposure...BTW, I found a repaint of D. B. Cooper's B727 (Reg. N467US / Northwest Orient). I posted a shot of the plane, below, with that famous aft staircase down...the exit that would be re-designed and fitted with Cooper vanes after the incident...

 

On 10/13/2022 at 10:18 AM, John F said:

Nice comparison. I like the way you sneaked that Caravelle shot in.

John

Thank you, John. Glad you didn't miss the Caravelle... (I hope some developer will take this plane seriously enough to come up with a good SIM rendition) .... there is an excellent freeware version btw, that I indeed occasionally fly...sure, you know about...on the HJG website...

 

On 10/13/2022 at 12:20 PM, Alaska738 said:

Great set of shots! 😉 

Glad you liked the pictures, these are after all Boeings...🙂...with the exception one....

 

D. B. Cooper (Northwest Orient Airlines) 727-51 (Reg. N467US)

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2 hours ago, P_7878 said:

D. B. Cooper (Northwest Orient Airlines) 727-51 (Reg. N467US)

 

Thanks.  What’s interesting is to prevent this from happening again they added an extremely simple device to the planes to prevent the air stair door from opening in flight.  Instead of adding circuits and all that work they created the DB Cooper switch.  It’s a piece of sheet metal bent at a 90 degree and it will “weathervane” when the plane is airborne.  When it moves it will place a piece of metal over the door to physically stop it from opening.  It’s spring loaded so it allowed the air stairs to open on the ground.

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Jack Sawyer

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19 minutes ago, Jack_Sawyer said:

 Instead of adding circuits and all that work they created the DB Cooper switch.  It’s a piece of sheet metal bent at a 90 degree and it will “weathervane” when the plane is airborne.  When it moves it will place a piece of metal over the door to physically stop it from opening.  It’s spring loaded so it allowed the air stairs to open on the ground

Nothing beats first hand knowledge 😉

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Any attempt to stretch fuel is guaranteed to increase headwinds

My specs: AMD Radeon RX6700XT, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 32GB RAM, 34" monitor, screen resolution: 2560x1080

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On 10/15/2022 at 5:08 PM, Jack_Sawyer said:

Thanks.  What’s interesting is to prevent this from happening again they added an extremely simple device to the planes to prevent the air stair door from opening in flight.  Instead of adding circuits and all that work they created the DB Cooper switch.  It’s a piece of sheet metal bent at a 90 degree and it will “weathervane” when the plane is airborne.  When it moves it will place a piece of metal over the door to physically stop it from opening.  It’s spring loaded so it allowed the air stairs to open on the ground.

Simple does it, Jack....🙂...Thanks for the clear explanation...!

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Just now, P_7878 said:

Simple does it, Jack....🙂...Thanks for the clear explanation...!

You’re welcome.  It’s amazing isn’t it?  

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Jack Sawyer

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Great History!!

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Patrick

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On 10/17/2022 at 7:33 AM, Phantom88 said:

Great History!!

Thank you, Patrick...! Glad you liked this bit of Boeing history...D.B. Cooper vane included...🙂...me too...!

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