Boeing 727 with rear airstair deployed

An airstair is a passenger staircase that is built in to an airliner - often, though not always, on the inside of the bottom half of a clamshell-style door. The stairs can be raised or lowered while the aircraft is on the ground, allowing passengers to board or depart the aircraft without the need for a mobile staircase or a jetway. Some piston-era airliners were equipped with airstairs, including the Martin 2-0-2, Martin 4-0-4, and versions of the Douglas DC-3 specially modified in the 1940s by Southwest Airways. Although uncommon on modern commercial airliners, most business jets are fitted with one, as were some of the early generation of jet airliners, such as the Boeing 727 and the Ilyushin Il-86, allowing them to operate from airfields with minimal support facilities. Image File history File linksMetadata Rwr727tail. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Rwr727tail. ... Stairs, staircase, stairway, flight of stairs are all names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps. ... An Airbus A340 airliner operated by Air Jamaica An airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft with the primary function of transporting paying passengers. ... A Jetway, jet bridge or aerobridge/airbridge is a moveable bridge, normally enclosed, which extends from an airport terminal gate allowing passengers to board an airplane without having to go outside. ... The Martin 2-0-2 was one of the first of the modern airliners. ... Martin 4-0-4 (Martin 404, Martin 4. ... The Douglas DC-3 is a fixed-wing, propeller-driven aircraft, which revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s and is generally regarded as one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made (also see Boeing 707 and Boeing 747). ... Business jet, private jet or, in slang, bizjet is a term describing a jet aircraft, usually of modest size, designed for transporting small groups of business people for commercial reasons at a time convenient to their business needs. ... The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, single-aisle (narrow-body) commercial jet airliner. ... Il-86 of Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise at St. ...

The most well-known airstair is probably that found in the rear underbelly of the Boeing 727. It was this airstair that obviously caught the eye of a man travelling under the name Dan Cooper, also known as D. B. Cooper. On November 24, 1971, he hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 flying from Portland, Oregon. With the $200,000.00 he extorted for the release of the passengers, he parachuted from the plane at low altitude after lowering the airstair on the aircraft, a feat most experts say would have been impossible to pull off successfully had he hijacked any other jet airliner and tried to exit the plane through one of the cabin doors. It is still debated today whether he was in fact successful, because neither he nor most of the money ever surfaced again. A 1972 FBI composite drawing of D. B. Cooper D. B. Cooper (aka Dan Cooper) is a pseudonym given to a notorious aircraft hijacker who, on November 24, 1971, after receiving a ransom payout of $200,000, leapt from the back of a Boeing 727 as it was flying over... Northwest Airlines (NASDAQ: NWAC) is an airline headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota. ... Nickname: City of Roses, Stumptown, Bridgetown, PDX Location in Multnomah County and the state of Oregon Coordinates: Country United States State Oregon County Multnomah County Incorporated February 8, 1851 Government  - Mayor Tom Potter Area  - City  145. ... The Apollo 15 capsule landed safely despite a parachute failure. ...

Following the D. B. Cooper incident and two other similar cases, the Federal Aviation Administration required a device to be fitted to 727 airstairs preventing them from being opened in flight; this device came to be known as a Cooper Vane. Many airlines sealed it entirely.   FAA redirects here. ... Following three hijackings in 1972, Boeing 727 aircraft were ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration to be fitted with a device known as a Cooper Vane, a mechanical aerodynamic wedge, which prevents the rear stairway from being lowered in flight. ...

The Airstair is also a special feature on the United States President's Air Force One Boeing 747. For other uses, see Air Force One (disambiguation). ... The Boeing 747, commonly called a Jumbo Jet, is among the most recognizable jet airliners, and is among the largest passenger airliners. ...

External links

• Period photographs of commercial airliners with lowered airstairs, from the Ed Coates collection:
  • Douglas DC-3 of Southwest Airways (second photograph on the page)
  • Martin 2-0-2, Martin 4-0-4 of Pacific Air Lines

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Airstair