N243FE —

Nice pic.. woild love to have on wall..

Great shot!

Love this! 5 stars! Fedex should go back to this livery! Cheers!!

Hundo

Awesome shot of this epic low flyover!

Awesome!

Right place, right time, super catch.

Was this perhaps the last 727 built?

Last 727-200F was delivered to FedEx September 18th, 1984 - so date does not really match with the shot….maybe just new livery?

That's a pretty clean bird (not showing much, if any flap) so she was moving quite quick when snapped.

Spectacular Photo Nigel.....

nice vintage pic

The 727 - best looking plane that Boeing ever built.

We still said “Keep the purple side up” even after they changed the paint... ;-)

I assume this was a Boeing piloted flight at that altitude and configuration.

Mark Albrecht, Amen to that! always loved the looks of the 727. doesn't hurt that it was my first commercial airplane to fly in also...SFO to DFW en-route to basic training.

Martin, this plane was previously with Ansett, so it was probably the delivery flight to FedEx, but not brand new off the assembly line.

Wow... that reminds me of a cool event at the Reno Air Races in 1991. FedEx had a similar 727-200 cargo liner there on display... empty of course... that you could walk through and chat with the crew. At the end of the day, they fired up to depart, and asked the tower for a low pass, which was approved. Similar to this great shot, they came down the runway at what I am guessing was 200 knots plus, then did a pull up that must have been max g-load for the aircraft. Seemed to go up at about a 60 degree angle (I'm sure it was less, but really impressive).

delivered to western airlines 1977, FedEx took delivery it in 1996 and was retired in 2011

wow! loved the trijets

Very Impressive Flying - What a great capture.

"Low fly by". You're not kidding! Terrific shot!

That is a cool pic, but I have to agree that the scenery doesn't look like Everett and you probably wouldn't take delivery of a single aisle plane there either.

Wow, what a beautiful, classic pic, Nigel! Thanks for sharing! I agree with Mark, but I think its the coolest, sleekest commercial bird ever, Boeing or any other manufacturer. In the 80s I worked for a major airline, and flew on 727-200s and MD-80s (and 737-300s) all the time. The Mad Dogs were sweet and smooth, but the 727s were that baddest. Sleek, smooth, powerful, and very nimble. I heard a story when at the airline, that a pilot took out a 727 for a test flight after some minor repairs, and did a barrel roll with it at about 15-20,000 feet (besides cockpit crew, there were no other psgrs). The barrel roll was perfect, but all the lavatory toilet fluid spilled out of the toilets into the cabin. The plane stayed, he got fired. I always wished I could've experienced a ride in a 727-100. Not many. I'm curious from pilots here, if the 100 was more of a "hot rod" plane than the 200,with more thrust to weight ratio?

Arrived Tramco / BF Goodrich Aerospace at Paine Field, Everett, Washington from Ansett Airlines on July 29,1989 as tail number VH-RML, Serial number 21480. Converted into a freighter for Federal Express and delivered on Jan. 10, 1990.

Facts about this aircraft; It was not the last 727 to be delivered to FedEx as you can tell by the date I took the picture and I also was a mechanic on this plane when we converted it from Ansett to FedEx, it was never a Western Airlines nor was it retired in 2011...Where do people come up with these things?

wow they shood