CT Only: First Scout/Courier

[Condottiere]

[Grav_Moped]

Originally Posted by Condottiere

(image)

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.)

[boomslang]

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.)

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.

[Condottiere]

There's a suspicion that the Central Intelligence Agency found it useful, and Cooper may have had a past association with them.