I’ve selected a Delta Air Lines Boeing 727-200 for this edition of Vintage Airline Seat Maps. The carrier operated another version, with the only basic difference being that the rear galley was on the right starboard side of the aircraft. I liked the 727, as did the pilots. Takeoff thrust is eerily quiet when sitting up front (or in the cockpit as I did so many times), though not as much as the MD-80 family. The same cannot be said for those sitting in the back, and I do recall sitting back there in those last two rows on occasion or two. Nothing like piercing & vibrating Stage 2 engines for a couple of hours! In first class you’d most definitely find me in row 3 or 4 (didn’t like the galley view from rows 1 & 2), and in coach I’d be content with a seat in rows 10-13.
Where would you sit?
Used to fly Delta out of CMH in the 90’s. They had a 727 on the CVG to CMH route that had to be nearing retirement. A late change had me on this route the last flight of the day and I ended up in seat 35F. Not only was it loud, as the author notes, but the exit slide protruded into the cabin to take up about half my legroom. Happily it was a short hop. The plane was so old that, as we pushed back from the gate, the captain came onto the intercom and called “all ‘board!”, as though he were a train conductor.