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.

Curbing Carbon in Aviation

It is no surprise, with the constant growth of the aviation industry, that airplane carbon emission has become a large concern as of late. Greenhouse gas pollution is always a significant environmental concern, and it turns out the aviation industry has become the fastest growing source of it. Therefore, the industry has been in negotiations with the United Nations for six years about how to tackle their worrisome carbon output. On Monday, February 7, they finally, reached an agreement on their first carbon dioxide emission limit.

With the recent international climate change conferences, the aviation industry came into the spotlight as a serious issue. It had not been a part of any climate change talks until after the Paris Agreement was reached. It was then that officials realized they could be doing more to address climate change by addressing an industry that constantly emits carbon dioxide. The limits are not, however, addressing the current carbon dioxide emissions. They are addressing the projected emissions by the aviation industry as the years go on. As it continues to grow, the industry’s emissions will most likely triple, which could harm the environment even further.

The new limits on carbon dioxide emission were actually announced in Montreal, and are expected to be put fully into effect by the year 2028. There are many who believe that the new rules are not harsh enough, however. While it is an important first step in further lowering humanity’s carbon emissions, the new rules were watched over carefully by the airline industry. In a six year negotiation, it makes sense that airline officials had a lot of say in what the new rules entail.

I do believe that the rules are too lax, as they do not even include current aviation vehicles, however this is a huge step in environmental protection. With vehicle technology continuing to grow, we have imposed limits on devices like cars and trucks in terms of how much carbon they are able to emit, and the same regulations should be in place for aircrafts, especially considering the rapid growth of the industry.

The new limits include a small reduction of the percentage of fuel each aircraft can consume, and will specifically target aircrafts in production. This will theoretically cut carbon emissions by hundreds of millions of metric tons in the span of 20 years. Of course, this is just the first step in what will be a long battle to reduce carbon emission from aircrafts, but it is a step in the right direction. Hopefully this will lead to further environmental regulations in the aviation industry, which will have a large impact on humanity’s quality of life in the future.