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DB Cooper may have worked at Boeing
Citizen scientists examining the JC Penney tie of DB Cooper have found particles that may place him at Boeings SST's project. (www.dailymail.co.uk) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
The airplane was a NWA Boeing 727 with a rear door that extended down to the tarmac to allow passengers to enter or disembark. Many such doors were subsequently disabled. I doubt Cooper had a happy landing, but he did have guts. I couldn't do that.
Actually, and if memory serves me correctly, the rear ventral strairs were usually lowered at the gate to act as a tail stand. When the pax loaded rear to front, there was a chance that with little fuel load the aircraft could settle on it's tail. It was also used if airstairs were not readily available. While on the theory road, I guess a flight engineer or second officer may have lost his medical, had extensive knowledge of the workings of the ventral stairs and was probably ex military and probably worked for another airline at some point...........tales from the past.
In the last decade I flew in an Ecuadorian Boeing 727 from Quito to the Galapagos with entry and exit using the back stairway. Of course I thought of you know who. I may have been the only passenger om board who knew how those stairs were once used.
Careful Jim, you're showing your age . . .
I was born on Orangemen's Day July 12, 1930, a long time ago. Herbert Hoover was president. My first airplane ride in a Piper Cub with floats in 1942 at 12 years of age. I paid two dollars for about twenty minutes. Google my full name, Walter James Murray. Minnesota Historical Society. Scroll down a bit for more. I'LL be careful.
Correct. The rear stairs on the 727 doubled as a tail stand.
Thx, Brian.
Many more 727s were fitted with a simple, automatic, aerodynamically operated gadget that made the airstairs impossible to open inflight. It was even known as the 'Cooper Vane'.