All the UPS 727’s are three crewmember aircraft with no plans on any conversion to two crewmembers.
I seem to remember some years back there was a conversion (proposed? - certified?) that had the engineer panel swing forward so it could be operated by the two window seat pilots. Anyone have any more info on this?
The Tay conversion program was not exactly embraced by the rest of the aviation world. Only one other aircraft other than the UPS aircraft was converted. This conversion was for the -100 series aircraft only – an airframe that is (1) old and (2) small. Not enough power in the Tay series at the time for a -200 conversion (the way I heard it).
The 727-100’s are falling out of favor at UPS. With rapidly expanding volumes at most cities, it is easy to bulk out (most package companies have more of a problem with “bulking out” instead of “grossing out” an aircraft). Their use as a hot spare rescue aircraft is limited for this reason also……it takes more than one to rescue many cities volumes.