Boeing 727 is Grounded

A plane that made its first flight in 1963 ended up making its last flight on March 2 of this year. The Boeing 727 was the first Boeing airplane with no prototype. It went straight from being made to flying customers. It was a commercial airplane, but a risky one at first. The Boeing 727 was, of course, made after the Boeing 707 as a response to increased customer demand. Its design was made to fly into smaller airports with shorter runways, and it was created despite Boeing still trying to keep up with costs of the Boeing 707. It was, however, worth the risk.

The Boeing 727 is a trijet plane, meaning it has three engines. It ended up being the first commercial airplane to reach 1,000 sales. It went on a tour of over 20 countries in order to boost sales, and therefore took on a wide variety of pilots, crew, and passengers in its lifetime. The plane’s entire life of service, all 27 year of it, was spent in the care of United Airlines. The revenue United Airlines accumulated due to this plane added up to $300 million, as it services millions of customers and flew tens of thousands of hours in its time of service.      

In 1991, the Boeing 727 was grounded, ferried to Boeing field, then flown to the Paine Field Restoration Center to spend 25 years being restored for its placement in the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington. On March 2nd, the plane, after 25 years, flew to be ferried to its final resting place in the museum.

The flight itself could only be done after obtaining special permission from the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane had not been in the air in so long that flying 30 miles south to the museum was a definite risk to all aboard. However, the permission was granted and two experienced pilots, one flight engineer, and the plane’s restoration manager got on board. They were able to get the plane the entire distance, even through a backfire by one of the engines on the plane’s journey down the runway.

There were hundreds of people that attended the installation ceremony of the Boeing 727, many of whom were former pilots of the plane. They welcomed the airplane and spent the rest of the day touring it, fans able to see a familiar interior and pilots revisiting memories of hours spent in the sky.