The new engines raised the maximum
take-off weight from 169,000lb (76,657kg) to
191,000lb (86,636kg), clearing the way for
a much heavier fuel load, which increased
the range of the 727-200A by 50%. The
irst 727-200 Advanced was delivered to All
Nippon Airways on June 30, 1972 and was an
immediate hit, selling 935 machines.
In the US, the 727 was the deinitive short
and medium hauler, the public transport
backbone of the nation. Braniff, Eastern,
United, American, Continental, Western,
Northwest, TWA criss-crossed the country
with their trijets, most with leets numbering
more than 100 airframes.MASS APPEAL
The 727 also found favour across the Arab
world, as the regional hardware of choice at
Air Algérie, Syrian Air, Alia (Jordan), Kuwait
Airways, Libyan Arab Airways, Iraqi Airways.
(The irst aircraft at the now-mighty Emirates
airline was a pair of second-hand 727s,
in 1985.) At the time Australia had what
was known as the Two Airline Policy for its
domestic lights, whereby the state-owned
TAA and privately owned Ansett operated
basically identical leets and schedules, so
the two airlines ordered six -100s each and,
later, 15 -200s each. As in the US, a whole
generation of Australians took their irst lights
aboard 727s.
Europe, with shorter distances between
cities, and with locally built competition in
the form of the very capable British Aircraft
Corporation BAC One-Eleven, Hawker
Siddeley Trident and Sud Aviation Caravelle,
was a tough sell for the 727. Undeterred, after
Lufthansa’s early and enthusiastic adoption
of what they christened the Europa Jet,
Air France, Olympic Airways, Iberia, TAP
Air Portug’l, Sabena of Belgium and JAT of
Yugoslavia became 727 operators, along
with a handful of leisure carriers including
Denmark’s Sterling Airlines, Dan-Air in the UK.One European operator worthy of note
was actually Pan Am, which, in return for a
near-monopoly on international traffic rights,
was barred from lying domestic within its
own country of the US until deregulation
in 1979. As the US was one of the three
guarantors of the tiny exclave of West Berlin
deep inside East Germany, Pan Am lew the
air corridors out to the rest of West Germany:
to Hamburg, Munich, the hub at Frankfurt,
and other European cities. United and Delta,which inherited local traffic rights when Pan
Am disintegrated at the end of the 1980s,
also lew 727s on intra-European sectors in
the 1990s.
Although the 727 was intended to serve
short- to medium-haul routes, Sterling Airlines,
Wardair of Canada and American Flyers
Airline all used 727-100s on transatlantic
charter lights with a fuel stop in Kelavík
(Iceland), Gander (Canada) or Bangor
(Maine) in the late 1960s and 1970s. In the
1990s Canada’s Royal Airlines lew 727s
weekly from Toronto to Tallinn in Estonia.FREIGHTERS
Federal Express, or FedEx, took 15 late-build
727-200F Advanced freighters, including
N213FE, the 1,832nd and very last 727 off
the line, which was handed over on May 24,- It was the end of an era at Boeing,
which turned its attention to the 757 and 767.
However, for the 727 and FedEx the story
was just beginning with 113 examples of the
727-100 and 106 of the -200 in purple livery
passing through the ranks at Memphis.
The highest number in the leet at any
one time was 170. As FedEx wound down its
727 inventory, 83 were donated to schools,
universities, museums and law enforcement
agencies across the US. The last machine
to ly for FedEx was N221FE, a 727-233
originally delivered new to Air Canada in
1974 and donated on November 19, 2014 to
Beaverbrook School in Dayton, Ohio.
QUICK-CHANGE 727s
United Parcel Service, or UPS, operated 50
727-100QFs (Quiet Freighter – re-engined
with Stage III-compliant Rolls-Royce Tay
turbofans) and eight 727-200s. In 1996 a
company division called the Asset Utilization
Experiment had ive of the -100QFs
extensively modiied by PEMCO World Air
Services in Tampa Florida: N946UP, N947UP,
N949UP, N950UP and N951UP.
Two permanent lavatories, sidewall trim,
light attendant jump seats on bulkheads,
and TCAS, new anti-collision avionics then
required only on passenger liners, not
freighters, were all installed. These machines
became 727-100QCs, for Quick Change,
a Boeing factory designation for similarly
convertible 727s.
Every Thursday or Friday, these ive ‘birds’
would have overhead bins secured in place,
followed by ten pallets rolled aboard via the
main deck cargo door, each comprising two
complete rows of six electric-blue seats with
33in (84cm) pitch, and a carpeted aisle.
Wiring looms were connected up to provide
galley power, call buttons, reading lights and
seat-belt signs.
In under four hours, a 727 freighter was
ready to ly 113 passengers off to the beach.66 Aviation News incorporating Jets November 2018
‘The first aircraft
at the now-mighty
Emirates airline was
a pair of second-
hand 727s, in 1985’
Dan-Air used its leet of 727s (including
the illustrated -200 G-BHVT) primarily on
short-haul charter lights between Britain and
holiday destinations in Southern Europe.Hinduja Cargo’s 727-200 VT-LCC started its lying career with Italy’s Alitalia in 1981 but was converted into a freighter in the mid-1990s.