FEDEX still flies many 727s. I see many of them quite often.
Each old jet engine required hush kits to comply with US Stage 3 noise regulations, and most JT8Ds in the US were modified years ago.
There are so many "steam-gauge" planes flying for US major airlines that many thousands of us still fly the old-fashioned way, and at least a few thousand of us have no flight engineer to preflight and operate most of the systems (!)
. What a shocking concept to many young 'cherries' out there.
