BOEING 727-200 (N1979)

After American sold it, this 727 went on to have quite a service history with several other carriers before ending its days flying for Angola Air. It was scrapped in 2003.

Nicely done!

Excellent catch, Gary! Well done putting the pieces of history together ;-)
One correction, the aircraft type is actually a 727-23. There were a few 727s made with the short fuselage, and this was one of them.

Greg and Dwight ... Thanks, guys. Dwight, I tried entering B727-2 but it kept defaulting to B722. I suppose I could just change it to B727 and leave it at that. Thanx for IDing it correctly.
And a note ... I've received emails regarding my decision to post my two oldies pics as one photo. I thank you for writing to give your opinions and I've replied to each of you. But in case there are others who may have felt this pic should not have been posted as one photo, I'll save them the trouble of emailing me. ... If I had been concerned about the "Star" ratings this pic would get, I'd have posted them as two separate photos. This pic was posted this way so that my FA friends and any other viewers who enjoy seeing pics from the past can get a full look at this aircraft. The rating means zilch. And besides, even as it appears here, this pic, created from two 50-year-old B&W 127 film photos, is way better quality than some of the total garbage pics I see being posted in the gallery. In fact, I would put this composite pic up against almost every one of the 27,000+ pics posted by FA's #1 contributor. This pic is more appropriate to this gallery AND it has better overall clarity than his "5 star rated" junk. Also, the first person who scored this pic a "1" just one minute after I posted it (yep, I know who you were) is the very same guy who posts pics that he has not snapped. Amazing that he dared to judge my pic here; at least, this is MY pic. And as we all know, there are others who post stolen photos. So to answer the courageously anonymous person who criticized me for posting this snap, I agree that the end result isn't ultra-super-duper quality, but there are plenty of FA viewers like Greg and Dwight who will enjoy viewing it. And THAT is why I posted it.

Gary, to quote what you said...

"...there are plenty of FA viewers like Greg and Dwight who will enjoy viewing it. And THAT is why I posted it."

Count me as one of those too!

This photo works because it has been "composited"... perhaps that is the applicable word?

Beyond that, it certainly captures a moment of a bygone era of commercial aviation and airline travel quite well.

Thanks for your effort to bring this photo to us!

Hi, Cliff, and TYVM for your comment and compli. I knew you would be one who would appreciate the attempt to present the two snaps as one. I've got two color pics showing the front and then the back of an Eastern L188 Electra but the two aren't as compatible for "matching up" and I'm finding they don't align up as nicely as these two did. I'll probably have to post them separately. As for this shot, I agree that it does reclaim a moment from the beginning of the jet age in commercial air travel, and that is the factor that makes them valuable and important to share. ;-)

Gary- I agree with your remarks. The FA gallery holds the history of aviation for present and future airplane enthusiasts. The fact that you found, restored, and posted your original work from many years ago shows us that you care about adding to the knowledge base here. Thanks for sharing!

And Thanks back to you, Dave, for appreciating it. It took a bit of effort to bring 'em together but they aligned fairly closely and although there IS distortion (and those danged reflections) the end result came out OK. (Thumbs Up and Thanks again)

Gary- I was planning on checking out some of the latest posts on a short break between work and school and not planning on commenting on anything until I can get home later this evening, but once I saw this one I just had to log in to tell you that I think it is a wonderful shot(s) of this 727. Most photographers if faced with this situation would only take one picture or just forget it and take no picture if they couldn't get the whole plane in the frame, but not you and I greatly respect your dedication to piece the two together and make an excellent 5* photo. Well done again Gary and your other latest posts are excellent as well :)

You're right, Gary, I do enjoy seeing your "oldies pics." Although, they don't seem that old to me. (FYI, I think you're only a little bit older than I am.) And I appreciate the work you put into your photos before you post them. Oh, and you're right about this not being a "5" star photo, but it is still (as you said) far and away better than most of the junk that some other people have posted. Keep up the good work!

Thanx, Mark. These old photos simply cannot compare in quality to the pictures that can be taken with 21st century digital cameras, but back in their day these old pics were considered to be pretty good. I'm glad that, at the urging of you and many others, I hung on to them; a few weeks back they came within a couple hours of ending up in a landfill. And I'd remind you to ... please ... NEVER pass up taking a photo of one of the old-model aircraft no matter if it is commercial, GA, military, etc.. Although it seems that everyone from the age of 5 and up now has a camera, the great majority of them know next to nothing about photography ... OR about aircraft and aviation. An old 727 sitting in the back corner of an airfield is just an eyesore to them, and if they even think to snap it they shoot it off-center and sunburned because they know zip about pic-clicking techniques. So despite all the cameras around nowadays, people like you who take great photos aren't all that common so the photos YOU take in these years will someday be the ones that future generations of folks will want to view.

Gary, you're very welcome and thanks again, my friend, for your good words and sharing this one with us!

Yup, I hear you, Gary. It is pretty funny! Oh, and 61 next week. ;-)