Originally Posted by
john_tullamarine
.. c'mon, c'mon ... tell us all about it ....
A bit incredible since that had a performance and engineering department that sold performance data to some other operators:
They taught: with an engine failure just above V1 you could fly the takeoff profile straight-ahead to 1,500 feet, afe, anywhere, anytime. That made no sense at Las Vegas to the west or San Francisco 19L/R. The union tech committee questioned it and were told "no problem, have a nice day."
We didn't buy that, so the head of the union went above the guy who ran the p and e department and gave a specific question: 727-231 taking off Ls Vegas Runway 25 at a temperature that just allowed MGTOW, engine failure just above V1, please provide altitude in one mile increments until reaching 1,500 afe. It took 31 miles. The airline would have crashed into the first ridge 8 miles west of the airport going straight ahead.
The result was pink takeoff performance sheets for airports where straight-ahead wouldn’t hack it. The pink performance sheet had an OEI flight track to avoid offending terrain.
This was in the early 1980s. TWA started operating jets some 20 years earlier. They were fortunate that an engine failure just above V1 didn’t bite them somewhere.
The solution was still the lousy +/- 300’ wide corridor. No one does that these days. Instead they use AC 120-91.