727 Landing Meigs Field, Chicago Museum Science and Industry

[expalman]

Excellent collection of videos, excellent short field landing.

The 727 was the fastest commercial aircraft when it was introduced in 1964, only to be outdone by the 747. Since it was so fast, I understand there was additional engineering in the wing and flap design.

I took a 727 many times on Reeves Aluetian Airline from Anchorage to Amchitka in the early 1990s.  Incredible aircraft.

[AccessDenied55]

Ive been in this plane atleast 30 times

[torrid426]

ZJ sent me.

[holycrapifoundthem]

The completely flat response of the pilot (uploader too, it'd seem) when asked how he practiced was awesome. "Uh, I'm type-rated on the 727, the aircraft is technically quite capable of doing this, so we did".

RIP Meigs.

[den2003]

Wow! That was a little harsh! Lol What was the rate of descent? It seemed like it hit something at the back?

But...wow! Landing at Meigs with such a big plane! What a feat!

[continentalb737800]

Ive been in that airplane

[JoshHartNow]

0:20 looks like the guy from Ghostbusters

[challiday1979]

Perfect landing! I've been in that plane, way back when I first visited Chicago before I moved here from the UK. It's pretty cool to see how it got here in the first place. Makes me want to give it a go in flight sim, but I doubt I'd be able to put it down anywhere near well enough!

[aisteroman]

whats that at 0:42 ?

[bcthomas2h90]

@aisteroman It was a helicopter.

[uriahms]

Does anyone know the airport of orgin for this flight?

[bcthomas2h90]

@uriahms The aircraft departed from O'Hare International in Chicago. We had to loiter over Lake Michigan for about 45 minutes for clearance to Meigs Field.

[AceNinja2112]

@bcthomas2h90 How many feet of runway did you use up during the landing?

[bcthomas2h90]

@AceNinja2112 About 2,000 feet of runway. I turned off at the mid-field taxiway.

[mayadaniel9]

WTF! It is very cool. Now it is in a museum in Chicago.

[HamburgAirport]

Is meigs now a plane museum?

[masm60]

@HamburgAirport No, sadly they made it into a park and hold concerts there. A lot of people here want to bring the airport back.

[RainbowManification]

@HamburgAirport Its a park. Mayor Daley had bulldozers dig big X's in the runway in the middle of the night on March 31, 2003 making it impossible to takeoff or land, the FAA fined Chicago $33,000 for doing this without authorization. His cited reason was anti-terrorism, in reality by forcefully closing the airport he made terrorism easier because aircraft could fly closer to downtown Chicago without radio contact.

[Jimfoxyboy]

I remember in one of the older flightsims by Microsoft, the 727 was one of the models of planes you see milling about at the Chicago airport. I think you had to install the Flightsim Flight shop in order to get that feature though. I never knew they landed one at Megis before.

[Ryan0556]

I wish i could land at meigs field but now i will never be able. : (

[bafrank3poc]

@Ryan0556 Never say never. With a new mayor there is talk of restoring Meigs to its active field glory!

[happyturtle18]

i just saw the plane today

[ChrizRockster]

What I like about this video is, something the size of Chicago, handling like a trainer, have a nice juicy bounce on touch-down and everybody carrying on as normal.

Great aircraft.

[baierlh]

he had to drop it on the ground ;D

[OsanBlackCat5RS]

WOW! meigs aint even around anymore right? i remember looking at it on the old Flight sim 95 and then looked it up on google to find it has been totaly built over with parking lots and buildings as if it was never there! strange......

[KartKing4ever]

i love meigs.....and the 727 i see this plane alot at the museum of sciece and insustry

[LOTIL62]

Yeah, but he basically got fined what some considered peanuts (33 thousand). Richard Daley is still in power though, he is still in office.

[XBoeingCapt]

oh boy, did I love flying the three holer..over 10,000 hrs in it, wow, what a landing!! He had a pretty good bounce there

[nekoexcel]

This airplane is gorgeous. One of my favorite items in the museum. It's great because there are quite often United pilots (retired or otherwise) who have actually FLOWN that particular 727. It's great to listen to their stories about flying both this jet, and other planes.

[nekoexcel]

Daley is still in office. Unfortunately.

[mh53eflyguy]

A little sporty on the landing but otherwise this would have been one great sight to see! I wish Meigs still existed. I hope Mr. Daley has realized that a park doesn't bring in as much revenue as an airport.

[brokenspar]

Back in 79 to 81 I used to fly a 414 from TUL to Meigs....I just can't imagine being on final and seeing that short runway front of me if I was in such a huge piece of iron!! Now BC, could you land one of your SR-71's at Meigs?? You ARE the BEST!!!! Thank you for sharing this with the world.

[ccubsfan94]

been in that plane

[danje10]

Great PR for United, the 727, and Meigs Field (sadly, Meigs was destroyed overnight by ill-advised politicians).

I understand why they landed at Meigs because it was close to the museum, but... WHY there, when it was immediately put on a barge and hauled to either 'Burns Harbor, Indiana' or "Benton Harbor, MI' (depending on which news report you believe)? Couldn't they find an airport closer to the final prep location with a suitable runway? Then barge back to the museum?

[Thumanator]

Because it looked freakin' awesome!

[mounsteres]

oh and he even said he WOULDN'T DESTROY IT!

[avi8tor4fn]

The news reporter mumbled. It was Burnham Harbor. Meigs' western shoreline is Burnham Harbor so you can't get any closer. It is a short barge ride to the Museum from there.

[Chuckjagermeister]

He must have had to dump or burn-off to near fumes to get a Vref of 100 knots (probably more like 100 knots over-the-threshold) with full flaps. Nice one.

[NVTrucker]

@Chuckjagermeister

More'n likely they flew it into ORD or MDW then just hopped it to Meigs.

[Mrgyn]

Reminds me of my FS landings... heh.

[johnwarman54]

man, the 727 is as beautiful as the 732. Btw, look at Ron Magers! he has glasses!

[ataramprat]

Does anyone else notice how much more professional and less sensationalistic the media was just 16 years ago? Today they would be shouting at us through the television and showing countless "what if" crash scenarios and acting as if they are aviation experts instead of news reporters. Ah, the good old days!

[mayi757]

Great point. The media nowdays has become more of an enemy of common sense and reason these days if one thinks about it

[avi8tor4fn]

Today Meigs Field is closed because of a sensationalistic mayor who claimed the city was endangered by the aircraft that used this wonderful airport. Other cities would die to have an airport located out in the water but so close to the city.

[aAIRCANADA806]

@avi8tor4fn accuallly another (my city) toronto has a water airport right in the city called toronto city centre airport.

[masm60]

@avi8tor4fn Daley is a jackass.

[vroomba03]

@ataramprat SO TRUE! Now tv is all about gossip and celebrities! its ridiculous

[SRMeadows]

@ataramprat

Now that you mention it.....YES, LOL

The good old days..

[TonyAirlines]

@ataramprat 9/11 ruined alot for General and Commercial Aviation, unfortunately.

[N8908E]

Beautiful airplane! I flew on the last 727-22 flight from ORD-PIA & back 0n 10-30-93.When this plane N7017U was donated to the museum just two short 727's were left in United's fleet: N7007U which retired in 1-93 and N7009U which retired 10-93.(9-63-10-93) The last 2 were only used as spares to back-up the main fleet. In fact Air Wisconsin contracted with United to use ship 9 for milk runs to&from PIA while they had maintenance problems w/F-27's. At one time United had 130 of the short 727's.

[billybillfat]

Thanks for posting this.  Excellent!

[omgiatejesus]

i went in it 593 times!

[benandemily]

isnt megs field supposed to be an airport just for propellor aircraft?

[PuffMac]

it was... it's shut now anyway

[N520UP]

No, Citations flew there too. Though the runway was probably weight restricted.

[vidman520]

no small planes lears and props hawkers but the 727 revolutionized airliners it could hold the same amount as the 707 and could take off and land at the same length of a Learjet

[ghostmario]

How did they get the plane inside the museum?

[DVA4890]

Big doors like in a hanger

[bigfootstolemytaco]

They chopedit up,and put it together inside the museum.

[kingsuji]

They got it onto a barge and torched it apart into sections able to fit into the doors of the museum. Seriously. I work down the street.

[Concordelover]

That was amazing. Tom Skilling looks so young.

[Jokester185]

How old is this?

[JHOW95]

i was just in that today its so amazing they tore out all of what would be first class and made all these displays to show how it works

[osiris7066]

Great collection of video! YouTube is great for sharing recordings of historic events like these. I live in the Chicago area and am familiar with many of these news anchors. It makes me feel old, when I see how young they all look!

[moose6692]

wow thats old but cool

[pfp217]

Just excellent! I love your quote "We don't practice short field landings in the 727" HAHA! My favorite coverage was the one showing the 72 with 603AS and 104GL I have worked both of those aircraft. Ahh the good ole CGX days.

[erich211oh2002]

Thanks for this vid. Great memories of a great plane!!

[civagiarn]

Thats amazing, I never thought it was possible to land even a regional jet on such a short runway!

[westofthefields]

Ironically, regional jets have poor short field performance capability. None of the 50 seat aircraft presently in operation have leading edge high-lift devices like those which were standard equipment on the Boeing 727. Ironic because the RJ's were considered to be replacement for the smaller "mainline" jets.

[zildjiandrummr12]

Ballz

[MSTLOM]

Always hate to see my favorite "Bird" cut up or mothballed. Like to see my 727's in service! Got to give it to you Capt Thomas, hell of a landing. Would love to see a departure from Meigs Field via 727 now!

[nowinseason]

The 727-100, especially if it retained the nose-wheel brakes, is supurb at short-field landings. With one caveat: you don't want the thing to float. This pilot did a great job getting the mains to stick---he probably could have only used half the runway if he had applied max brakes and reverse. Great job!

[Kpeters]

I love the 727 what an elegant machine, and landing one at meigs omg...lol requires balls what can I say. Words say 727's are very trick with a short landing configuration.

[wdwron08]

That was a great video of this United 727-100. I miss this great old bird

[flightcrew]

I miss working this Bird!

[michaeluae]

Great job by Capt. Thomas, thanks for posting. I saw the aircraft at the museum couple of years ago and couldn't believe that while they had ATC audio of it landing at Meigs, there wasn't any video of this achievement. Now finally I get to see how it looked!

[Falkirion]

I still see 727s some days here in Australia (God bless Australian Air Express freight!). But havent seen a 727-100 all my life. Nice work by the pilot to get her into Meigs.

[Inthernet]

Excellent compilation, and that was one very wild and amazing landing. The way the plane came in so slowly was scary, something which I see pretty often on my flightsim so seeing it for real is...dang!

[boris342]

Super landing. A fully unloaded 727 on full flaps is capable of approaching at 90 knots according to the flight manuals. So yes this is completely possible. Also is take off, a fully unloaded 727 needs only 2500 Ft of runway at 100 degrees F.

[bwohlgemuth]

Been looking for this video for years....great landing, also nice to see the various newscasters I grew up watching as well!

[MD11ER]

Phenomenal landing by the pilot, very daring! This is a great exhibit, tourists should check out it. This was a 727-100, unlike the stretched -200 models we were used to seeing until a few years ago. I miss these elegant tri-jets, at least there are still AA & DL MD-80's.

It was the spring of 1993 I believe Ubeans.

[bnhames]

Based on info given in the video, this was in 1992.

[capceo]

I miss Meigs, had it been on a longer runway, it would have been a terrible landing, however, given the runway length, it was FABULOUS. Just a little firm.

[ualtrashcleaner]

dang! thats crazy! thanks for sharring!

[scjozpzx]

pobre tren

[kike734]

Awsome pilot and plane, thank, for sharing

[Ubeans2001]

Amazing!!! What year was this?

[PrincessAndrassy]

Ron Magers isn't at nbc 5 anymore! Stupid mayor Daley had to ruin it in the middle of the night.

but good clip! thanks

[cmtehori]

Thank you so much for sharing, I wish I could have voted 6 stars!!! By the way, on the first boradcast they say it landed at about 115mph which seems too slow to a 727, any thoughts? And on the last one, you realise it was taxiing with the speedbrakes still deployed, ain´t that unusual? You sure did a great jog recording and editing them all together, once again thanks for sharing!!!

[Tressiensia]

I'm sure they stripped everything from inside the plane and landed on virtually empty in order to be able to bring her down at 115 mph. I imagine a 727's regular landing speed would be about 130 knots.

When they say "115 miles p/h" on TV I am not sure if they mean nautical or statute. If thy meant 115 miles per hour statute, that would make it 95 knots. I don't think this is impossible either if they really stripped the plane down.

[vargas37]

Man I love the 727!!!

[sgabriel]

Wow. I would have said a go-around was in order. It was pretty marginal at the end. You can smell the machismo through the computer screen.

[Blackbird101]

Yikes! Landing a 727 on approximately 4,000 feet of runway with major gusts!! Now that is what I call a pilot. He flew the SR-71 Blackbirds and without a doubt he was one of the best in the business. A "Habu"...A proud tradition.

Leland Haynes, Webmaster, SR-71 Blackbirds

[Aviationbuff]

Very nice.  Thank you very much.

[alphamone]

sucks that that airstrip isnt there anymore

[afortaleza]

Yeah man, amazing landing ! Congratulations.

[]s from Brazil

Anderson Fortaleza

[roniandrade]

Mr. Thomas, tks for show us this video.

Best regards from Brazil

Roni de Andrade