Yes, I noticed that when I was looking for a link. I’m guessing that a 727 needs a captain, so the last captain would be on the last flight.
So it’s a shorter 100 series 727 with the more powerful engines along with winglets and the newest avionics? That took some lovin (aviation speak for money).
Yes. Doubtless an expensive set of mods.
Those re-engining kits came out as the commercial 727s were hitting the noise wall in the early 1990s.
There were a few varieties, but that one was the most successful. Put the more powerful slightly higher bypass -217 or -219 engines from an MD-80 on the outboards, leaving the center engine alone. There may have been a kit that replaced all three, but I’d never heard of it back then.
The thrust boost alone helped the noise footprint by launching the aircraft earlier along the runway and more steeply into the sky. Plus the engines were inherently less noisy. Although still horrendous by 2026 standards.
Meanwhile, the freight companies, ranging from leaders like FedEx & UPS to the whitetail dogs of the night all had need to update their 727 cockpits as new mandates for RVSM, RNAV, RNP, and the rest of the alphabet soup just kept coming. And the original 1960s electromechanical gauges became unmaintainable for lack of parts. So a few outfits sprung up that re-instrumented the 727s for all those users.
As such, the very few private 727s didn’t need to pay for completely custom jobs, just order one out of an existing catalog from an existing supplier. Still spendy, but not as spendy.
The 757s and 767s out there today have long since undergone a similar cockpit upgrade. The original rig was CRT displays for ADI & navigation, plus engine displays. And round dials flanking the first two for altimeter, airspeed, etc. And true FMSs, but with very limited storage and computation.
All that was becoming unmaintainable and noncompliant by the early 2000s. So the usual suppliers showed up to offer a replacement instrument suite more like that of a 737 NG. Two sorta-large screens side by side in front of each pilot, Primary Flight Display and Nav Display, plus two up the middle for engine instruments and status stuff. And much more capable FMSs. And a few ancillary knob & button changes to control the new displays and interface with the new FMSs.
Again not cheap on a per-airplane basis but at least the non-recurring engineering and certification effort was spread over a fleet of a thousand or more.
This TB-25N Mitchell has been flying over our house in north metro Atlanta once or twice a day for a few days. It has been departing KPDK/Dekalb-Peachtree airport, and passing over at about 3,300 feet. The low rumble is audible for at least a couple minutes incoming/outgoing.
Report of an airshow accident today, not much detail yet:
Two EA-18 Growlers. Aircrews punched out successfully and are OK.
Those are very expensive and irreplaceable aircraft from an already too-small fleet.
Mishaps are always bad. Worse w dead people. But as non-fatal mishaps go, this was a doozy in terms of the consequences.
Only about $125 million each.
Maybe we can wait for a BOGO sale.
Preliminary report out:
The National Transportation Safety Board report said that during the flight, the pilot reported problems with the plane’s anti-icing system that protects onboard instruments.
He later reported an instrument that measures airspeed had “iced up” and that he was using backup gauges. He was cleared to descend to 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) and told air controllers he wanted to get to a lower altitude to try to “warm back up.”
https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/202915/pdf
I can understand the plane crashing because the pilot was confused by the failure of these readings, but I don’t understand why it broke apart midair. Are the aircraft really that flimsy?
On my phone so no dissertation.
See
And especially
Bottom line is eventually the confused pilot gets going well above redline speed then pulls so many Gs they rip the wings off and the various big parts plummet or flutter to the ground.
I didn’t realize EA-18s were magnetic stacking toys.
That was just weird.
That was indeed a really weird sequence.
Upon further review several times …
With various underwing stores that stick out ahead of the leading edge of the wing, I think the upper rear airplane managed to get wedged with it’s wing stores under the trailing edge of the lower forward airplane. They are extremely fortunate the fuselages ended up misaligned enough that everyone had an unobstructed ejection path. That would not have been the way to bet at first.
It looked to me like one aircraft’s read fuselage got stuck between the other’s twin tails. But I only watched it twice.
What’s the mating call of the EA-18?
Mayday Mayday Mayday … Eject Eject Eject!
Funny!
(I thought of dragonflies doin’ it, myself).
David Letterman used to joke that the Post’s editorial policy required that the word “bludgeoned” be used in at least one headline per issue.
And don’t even get me started on those darn møøse bites!
It certainly looked sexual. Complete with the climax of 4 pilots shooting out.
Two-click rule.