Hi Old Fella,

My memory was failing when I posted on 17th. You are correct that the rudder boost was selected on most of the time, but Boeing published VMCA figures for Boost Off (about 60 kts faster). I found a copy here:
http://www.vpiaheritage.com/707limitations.pdf
on page 10.
I seem to remember we would turn the boost off in the cruise to dampen the yaw. Happy days!

Boeing found they weren't going to be able to put enough rudder on the airplane for it to be as controllable as they would like. Instead of redesigning the whole tail and increasing the size of the entire rudder them simply cut it in half (vertically) and added the tabs to increase effectiveness without increasing size.

727 Prototype Airplane Historical Photos and Data

You can scroll the the photos of the prototype here. You'll notice that on the first flight the tail and rudder all match in color, but there are photos interspersed of the aircraft at a later point with an all white rudder, which is the rudder used on the production aircraft.

@aviatorhi

Thx for the link:ok:

Brings back sweet memories...

And why was the 727 so safe?
 

Boeing stats. I've always been vaguely curious about that.

Like i said, he's got the pictures mixed up, that's a later test flight being labelled as the first, if you look at the rollout stills and the in flight photos from the (verified) first flight (and even video if you wanna look it up) you'll see the original (off-brown) rudder, later flights had the white rudder and modified system in response to the need for more yaw control/rudder authority.

''Dutch roll'' & B727, B727 ...
 

Dutch roll is a typical problem with Boeing. :E

Instead of rolling right and left and right and left , Airbus is worth : the tail fin gets broken by the typical strength of the roll. :}

But if the dutch roll begins, it is possible to stop this crazy dynamic, with a little mathematic. I did the demonstration five times in 1992.

At the end the ''dutch roll'' is cause of many incidents and accidents, false qualified. :ugh:

When will pilots get a real formation to recognize a dutch roll, and come out of it ?? :confused:

('roulishollandais' is the french expression for 'dutch roll':ok:)

According to 'Cats Eyes' Cunningham (I think) in his auto-biography, Boeing only fitted the rudder boost as a consequence of his insistance (to the UK CAA) that an average pilot would not-in certain conditions-be able to control the a/c. I think he meant after an engine failure at T/O, but as i don't have the book anymore I can't check. I'm sure someone will.

If that was supposed to be a joke, it's not very funny. :ugh:

Are you sure that it had been damaged by a mid-air?

The reason I am asking is that I flew the old 'Hoot' Gibson -100 and it flew just like you related. It always seemed like it wanted to fly sideways and it was impossible to keep in trim.

Fortunately we only leased it for a short period, about a month.

That's a new story about the old "Boeing". EAL had a -100 that flew pretty strangely, as an F/E, I'd watch the pilots putting in trim, then taking it out, then putting some more in. I'd nervously watch fuel balance, assuming I'd screwed it up. It had been in a snow bank at some time inits life and not under control.

GF

Boeing has never installed a Yaw 'dampener' in any Aircraft.




It is called a Yaw Damper !

Yes, you are correct. I did fly that aircraft for ten years. You must have joined JPATS just after I left, we still had the Sabre 80s then. My favorite 72 was 113. I did get my type rating in the aircraft we are discussing, then it had the 'N' number of N2777. In fact there is an in-flight photo of N2777 with the original USMS paint scheme hanging in my bar.

As for the 'Hoot' Gibson 727, we leased it from some airline, that I cannot remember the name of now, which was based at DFW. Let me tell you, after flying that hunk of junk and then got back into 530KF, you thought you were flying a brand new 727. God that thing flew horribly.

In the ten years I was with the Marshal Service I flew over ten thousand hours, 7,000+ was in the 727s. I got to where I really loved the 727-100, my God, the things you could do with those aircraft. I never really understood just why they replaced the 72s, after all, they were bought and paid for and when I was there, in great shape. So why get rid of bought and paid for aircraft and replace them them with leased aircraft, that could not do the mission profile the 727 was capable of.... Well, it just never made sense to me. Of course I heard rumors, but rumors are rumors and I never assign much credit to them.

Anyway, I'm sure we flew with a lot of the same guys there, overall I enjoyed my years with the Marshal Service, but I never looked back after I left.

Oh, the lady killed in the OKC bombing was one of my best friends and she sang at our wedding when my wife and I were married.

And finally;

Believe it or not, I was standing on the ramp of Catlin Aviation (an long gone FBO at Will Rogers) and saw N27 land after that mid-air. Never in my wildest imagination would I have believed that years later I would be flying that same aircraft.

Yeppers, but it was a grand, great old bulb. :p

Did you ever have a chance to fly a -100 with MD-80 type engines?

I did once, and if you closed your eyes at the wrong moment, you'd out climb the wing in a heartbeat.

But progress is progress and life goes on, I miss flying the DC-3 as well.


Okay, not as much. ;)

I remember Catlin Aviation from my check flying days !


The B727 was the First Jet I ever flew. It was a dream come true.



I think it was the best handling narrowbody made.




I was lucky.