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Old 12-23-2014, 11:26 PM   #4
Marin
Scraping Paint
 
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 13,745
I don't have it and it wasn't authorized for use or posting other than to Boeing's NewAirplane.com website. But of course it's been snagged and is on YouTube. So you can find it if you look.

I was invited to a burgers and beer thank-you thing last Friday evening for a video series I produced for our flight deck sales team. A couple of people I worked with on the project who have retired were there. The subject of the 787 Farnborough flight came up, and the consensus was (a bunch of these guys were our pilots) that while the 787 flight is very pretty, the 757 can fly rings around it.

The 757 is acknowledged by everyone here who's flown one, or been in one on a test flight, to be the hottest transport plane Boeing has ever produced. I flew in it a lot when I was supporting the program in the early 80s shortly after I hired in. Got to know John Armstrong, the chief program pilot, and flew with him numerous times. On several occasions there were just four of us in the plane-- John, a right seat pilot, usually Rose, our first female flight test pilot, a test director, and me. Minimum fuel.

You think the 787 in the video took off at a steep angle? John would rip down BFI's runway and haul the 57 back into a near vertical climbout and then hold it until we went through 10,000 feet. The 757 is so overpowered (because of the twin engine rules) that the thing is like a rocket. John compared the 57's roll rate to the early generation jet fighters (which he'd flown in the military).

I never got to actually fly one, of course, although I did accumulate several hours in the full-motion simulator (with the motion turned on). Quite a ride.

Not to take anything away from the 787--- it's a fantastic plane from an airline perspective. But in terms of sheer performance the 787 is like a Mercedes sedan where the 757 is like a Shelby Cobra.

On Friday we got to talking about the 757's first flight. It flew out of Renton, of course, which has a 5,380 foot runway oriented more or less north-south. First flights (in fact I think all our flights) have to be made to the north out over Lake Washington. The morning of the first flight the wind was gusting from the south to 25 mph. By the time the first flight was supposed to happen, the wind was getting well up over 30 mph as I recall

All of us figured the flight would be cancelled for the day. So we were amazed when John and his right seat, Boeing Chief Pilot Lew Wallick, climbed in, fired up, and taxied out. As the wind seemed to actually increase, we went from being amazed to being downright scared. All of us were certain we were going to be filming a major accident.

John did a quick run down the runway to test the brakes, and then went back and lined up for the takeoff. I was shooting the takeoff from the lake end of the runway, and when you're looking through a film camera with your eye in the eyepiece, what you see becomes your whole world. So I didn't have a sense of perspective and distance.

John revved the 57 up and let the brakes go and the plane started toward us with a jerk. The wind was really blowing now, and as I watched the plane come toward me I was totally convinced it was going to run off the runway, hit the rip rap next to the lake and explode as it went into the water. Or, it was going to veer off and come right at me.

I had just about made up my mind to leave the camera and run when the plane rotated and climbed out. I opened my other eye to see where John had lifted off. He'd rotated barely halfway down the runway.

That's what kind of power a 757 has. A lot of airlines are putting pressure on us and Airbus to create a new 757-class airplane. Some airlines have even asked us to put the 757 back into production, which we couldn't do even if we wanted to which we don't. Airlines that have 757s are hanging onto them, and I recently read here that some are even increasing the size of their 757 fleets by buying them up as other airlines sell them off.

It's my favorite Boeing model, with the 777 being a close second.
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