Trijet Reborn: A 727-100 Wishlist

10/1/2020

There are few civil airliners with the importance of the 727 and it quickly became the mainstay of the world's airline fleets through the 1970s and well into the 1980s. There were 572 727-100s built and the type has had some interest in 1:400 scale, with over 190 models made, but there have been none since 2014. This sorry situation leaves a good number of models unmade, several of which are really important historically.

I reviewed the existing 727-100 moulds way back in 2016 and nothing has really changed since then. The Dragon mould is obsolete and incorrect, the Aviation400 mould has the wrong tail chord and presumably is buried in the JC backlog somewhere, the Gemini Jets mould is ok but struggles with its horizontal stabs and the Aeroclassics mould hasn't been seen since 2014.

Ansett Airlines of Australia Boeing 727-100 VH-RMD

I am a big fan of the Aeroclassics mould. It may not be 100% perfect but it is more than good enough, plus I already own 61 models using it and only four that don't (3 Geminis and a Jet-X). It'd be nice to standardise on the Aeroclassics mould fully, but Aeroclassics have said that the mould is no longer available. That doesn't necessarily spell the end of 727-100s in 1:400 scale though and perhaps it can be repaired for new releases?

Certainly I don't see any of the other moulds getting much usage - really only the Gemini could realistically get reused. I remember that Gemini reacted so poorly to criticism of their mould that presumably their sulk is still ongoing 6 years later :).

Anyway here we are in 2020 with a whole load of 727-100s still needing attention. I hope Andrew and Aeroclassics are listening. Here are 59 lovely examples I'd be keen to see in this scale that have largely never been made before.

The USA

The 727-100 sold like hotcakes in the USA and was operated by all of the trunk airlines (except Western) at some point as well as several of the local service airlines. As deregulation dawned cheap to buy or lease 727-100s were important components of several start-up airlines fleets - usually the poorer ones!

Boeing House Colours
I'll start with the prototype. Although this model has been made by Aviation400 it is almost impossible to find. Please remake it:

United Airlines
Probably the most obvious unmade 727 is the United delivery colours with the unusual forward cheatline:

Bill Larkins [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

In fact United has been poorly covered in 1:400 for 727-100s. There have been six but four have been on the Dragon mould, with a mix of bad printing and incorrect colours, whilst although the other two, made for Aurora, use the Aeroclassics mould one of them has the colours way too dark also. So there is room for almost a full set of United releases:

Image by Bob Garrard

Image by Bob Garrard from his FlickR page

Andrew Thomas from Shrewsbury, UK [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

Northwest Orient
It seems crazy that nobody has made a D.B. Cooper era 727-100. A surefire seller especially if actually N467US:

Eastern Air Lines
There have been 4 Aeroclassics Eastern 727-100s but none of the later scheme versions. Only Gemini's unsatisfactory all metal version exists. There are in fact several livery variations that I'd like to see made still, starting with the high metal belly 1975 New Mark variant:

Alain Rioux [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Classic Silver New Mark:

Alain Rioux [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

The 1980s grey paint low cheatline variant:

Jon Proctor [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Braniff International
I've never been satisifed with the Dragon Flying Colors versions so would appreciate some better versions:

Piergiuliano Chesi [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]

A couple even got into Ultra colours:

Moving from the trunks to the local service airlines and these ones stand-out:

Pacific Air Lines

Piedmont
There were pacemaker 727-100s on two different spells for PI:

727s also got into the fleets of some of the supplemental airlines.

American Flyers

Steve Williams [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Of course the intra-state and territorial airlines also used 727-100s.

Pacific Southwest
There have been several PSA 727-100s but not this one:

Richard Silagi [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)]

Air Florida

Alaska Airlines
There have been 12 Alaska 1:400 releases but none of this lovely hybrid:

Richard Silagi [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)]

Moving into the deregulation era and there were plenty of interesting smaller American operators such as:

Perry Hoppe [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Eduard Marmet [CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL 1.2]

JetPix [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Felix Goetting [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Europe

The 727-100 was never a major seller in Europe but did get some exposure with flag carriers and charter operators.

Udo Haafke [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Ken Rose [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Felix Goetting [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Dan Air
The only UK operator of the series 100. Gemini has done one scheme but not these two:

clipperarctic [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

Andrew Thomas from Shrewsbury, UK [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

TAP Air Portugal
This one has been made apparently but is so rare the database doesn't even have a photo of it.

JetPix [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Africa

Michel Gilliand [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Latin America

There are several re-releases in this region I'd love - especially Varig and Cruzeiro, but there are still other 'new' 727s that merit a release:

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

JetPix [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Perry Hoppe [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Torsten Maiwald [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Kambui [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

Perry Hoppe [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

JetPix [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Paul Davey [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Aviation Photography of Miami [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Asia

Rolf Wallner [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Japangyro [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Christian Volpati [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Oceania

Ansett and TAA are quite well covered but there are still a few 727-100 options for the Pacific: