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Show 1,500th Boeing 727 Delivered f T f'-t' The l,50()(h Boeing 727 was delivered to United Airlines in ceremonies recently at Ronton, Washington, where the popular trijets are built. UAL Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard J. Ferris accepted Number 1,500 for the airline, with Boeing Chairman T. A. Wilson speaking for the manufacturer. It was the 201st 727 delivered to United, largest airline, in the free world in terms of Heet size, and by far the biggest purchaser of the type. The delivery came 15 years and 9 months after the first 727 was delivered. It broke all commercial airplane sales records, reaching 1,000 orders in September 1972, then 1,250 sales in March 1976 and 1,500 orders on February 2, 1978. The swept-wing trijet, by now as commonplace com-monplace as a control tower at airports the world over, has surpassed even the venerable 707, which has a total of 941 sales. The 1,000th 727 was delivered to Delta Air Lines in January Janu-ary 1974. Such are its numbers that throughout the world an average of 320 Model 727s are in the air at any one time. There are 96 current operators of the workhorse jetliner, and they now amass more than 126 million miles a month and carry 162 million passengers a year. The first 727 built is still flying for United. Delivered Oct. 29, 1963, it has carried an estimated Wi million passengers and has flown about 18,000,000 miles. It was part of Boeing's test fleet in the early 1960s, but was not the first 727 in service. That honor went to Eastern Air Lines which started flights on February 1, 1964, using the third 727 built. |