Quote:
Originally Posted by Grav_Moped
I think the light-colored spot on the port side of the opening, behind the lift strut, is the Cooper Vane (wikipedia).
(It's a simple airflow-detecting lock that prevents the stairs from being deployed in mid-air.)
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Wikipedia should probably note that the ability to deploy the rear stairway of a Boeing 727 in flight was a
deliberate design choice in the original milspec of the aircraft, specifically to facilitate low-altitude mid-air deployment of paratroopers, and not some sort of hideous engineering and safety oversight hijackers such as "D. B. Cooper" discovered how to exploit themselves.