The 727 was made to fly FAST, made to fly SLOW on approach, made to stop SHORT, with brakes and a heavy footprint....and to turn around and blast off again in short order. Had its own airstairs. And the flight controls made it fly like a dream (Over 5000 hrs on it, would gladly have stayed on it to retirement). And it could go down AND slow down! Big roomy cockpit, and not enough gas to go anywhere serious, usually, so you weren't sitting there for hours on end. The pilots didn't have to hold or read checklists in any situation, set T/O & climb thrust, fiddle with pressurization, aircond. & heating, fuel systems, or do a walkaround, the engineer handled it. Boeing should have automated the engineer, (a la the 744), made it a two-engine airplane, with winglets, an in-flight APU, and shut down the 737 production line instead.