Man gives a detailed tour around the first Boeing 727 and it's a serious history lesson

The Boeing 727 is one of the most important passenger aircraft ever made.

An underrated narrow-body airliner and the Boeing 737’s ‘dad’ (or maybe uncle), the 727 is also one of the best-selling Boeings ever made.

The one you’re seeing here is a prototype unveiled over 60 years ago, and it’s still in great condition.

It’s also, more importantly, a bit of a history lesson and a trip down memory lane.

Literally one of the first Boeing 727 ever made

YouTuber Paul Stewart gave us a tour of the prototype Boeing 727-100 that’s currently on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

Developed as a compromise for three airlines, the plane was characterized by its signature black nose cone, its three-engine configuration and its T-tail.

It was a complicated plane, but also quite simple at the same time.

The cabin had a simple three-seat layout in economy and two-seat in premium economy, but the cockpit required a three-person crew, like Concorde, including a flight engineer.

Between 1963 and 1984, the American aerospace company built just over 1,830 units.

The jet that got banned for being too loud

Some people may not know this but the Boeing 727 was actually banned at some point because it was too loud.

Built (almost) on request for United Airlines, American Airlines, and Eastern Air Lines, the 727 was designed from the start as a trijet plane.

As a result, since its creation, the 727 has been one of the loudest aircraft ever made.

In 1972, new regulations forced the manufacturer to think of a solution, which resulted (years later) in a ‘hush kit’ being retrofitted to all existing 727s.

But that was only a stopgap solution because in 2010, the Boeing 727 was actually banned from some Australian airports for producing too much noise.

Fortunately for Boeing, this was a bit of a non-problem: as of 2026, the 727 is still being used, but only in limited cargo service and, occasionally, as a business jet.