Remembering The Cool Airstair On The 727... And D.B. Cooper
Monday, April 5, 2010 at 03:14PM 
I suppose the 727's airstair is fresh in my mind because I've incorporated a similar arrangement into my design for the Retro Airliner contest that'll be ending soon. I'll be posting my big prop airliner concept on Thursday 4-8-10, you might wanna mark your calendar for that : )
I know several of the aft-engine jet airliners had an airstair that dropped out the back like this, but the one on the 727 just always seemed to be the right one to me. Maybe that's because I used to ride a United 727 A LOT when I was a kid, and I got to use those stairs a couple times.
It's also pretty cool that my dad, who was type-rated in the B-727 and flew many hours for United in them, actually got to make a skydive out the back of the one shown below back in 1995! After he passed away in January 2009, I found his official D.B. Cooper certificate (#0585) in a frame along with this picture. I'm pretty sure they took a pic of each of the skydivers as they went out thru the hole where the stairs would usually be... so I think the guy in the middle is my dad.
They slowed the 727 down to about 150 mph which made for a pretty big blast! An especially big blast because my dad was retired from United and by this time he was 66 years old! I'm guessing he wasn't the oldest guy to jump from the 727 that year when the airplane was at the World Free Fall Convention, but I'll bet he was the only one type-rated in one! I remember he showed his license to the pilots of the 727 and they thought that was pretty cool. Crazy, but cool : )
My type-rated-in-a-727 dad jumping out the back of one in 1995!
Reader Comments (2)
This is really cool! Never thought this was possible. I remember going up the after staircase on a Hawaiian DC9! It was a treat!
Thanks for sharing this.
My Dad also worked for United air lines in the 60" (Red and Blue stripe on the tail with the word United running through the middle) working out Billy Mitchell Fielf (mke) As a kid I flew a lot on the 727 walking up those back stair my self