I am a figment of my own imagination
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
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During a 727 maintainance period with Air France in Paris some years ago we parked next to a Syrian Arab Airlines 727 which had spent about 30 mins airborne and made an emergency return. Having been familiar with the well known pictures in met manuals of 'trashed' aircraft had been blissfully unaware of what could happen to 'large' aircraft. I was, besides being truely horrified, also baffled as to just how it had remained airborne at all. There were gaping holes in fuselage 'cheek' areas just aft of the cockpit. Radone and nose section substantialy damaged. All leading edges had suffered major damage and re-shaping. Controll surfaces had all sustained damage. Engine bullets pierced and flattened. Pitot tube fronts split and splayed out. Cockpit windows completely smashed outer layers gone. The fact that it had returned safely was testament to among other things Boeing's 'tank' build, and a salutory lesson on the destructive power of thunderstorms right by airports
I would venture in the cost-concious building of today the old overkill on structure has most likely given way to lighter and perhaps thinner construction. It might be interesting to speculate on relative damage to two airframes, ancient and modern, encountering a similar intensive encounter.