Powerback has been with us a long time. First tried (so far as I know) by the chief test pilot at Douglas, 1947 in Santa Monica with the very first DC-6 on the first flight. Ben Howard was his name, a true gentlemen....Donald Douglas Sr. nearly had a fit at the time.
Works good....if done properly.
AA used powerbacks as a standard operating procedure in the early 1980's with B727's ...where the local airport authorities permitted. Don't know about now.

Stupid 80s powerback all the time in Dallas.

Cheers
Wino

May an 'outsider' presume that the reason Turbo Props can Power back, is because the air blast is always in front of the wing and thus any components that might stop debris?

My nephew who drives J41s tell sme that, on a Powerback, the one thing that you do not want to do is touch the brakes. Drop the thrust and wait until she stops, otherwise she will pretend that she has a tail wheel!

411A & Wino -

Y'all are very correct. AA uses powerback (reverse thrust) at most airports in good weather on the S-80s and the "Little Fokker". Can't remember it being done on the jumbo's though. Have never seen it done on the ATRs or the Saabs.

edited - because I forgot about the RJs which I have seen powerback once or twice at airports with nose-in parking. I dotry as hard as I can to forget about the RJs as best as possible. FLYING CIGAR TUBES!!! :)

I always wondered how the rampers felt about all that "blast" coming back at them. -dAAvid

And here are some relevant photos from airliners.net:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=184632
http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=037973
http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=062277

The C-17 is designed to be able to do this, while going up a 2.5%(?) gradient. Obvious really I suppose as it operates to places with no ground support.