<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by FWAAA:
Call me overly picky, but the 757 would look a whole lot nicer if the front end resembled the 707/727/737 nose. It is surely Boeing's Edsel (appearance-wise).
Was there an engineering reason for making the nose so unattractive?</font>
I concur, the 727 nose is the best jet airliner ever. However, having said that, I like the 75 nose as well. Even though I'm an engineer, and I don't play one on TV, I don't know the engineering rationale behind the 75's nose. I would imagine it has a lot to do with aerodynamics and perhaps pilots' view, given that it sits pretty high.
My vote for favorite airliners goes first to the 74, then the 72.
My vote for Edsel noses goes to MD, their DC-8's and -9's and subsequent MD-80's are beyond ugly.
A friend of mine's friend is an HP captain on the 75. He says in good turbulence the fuselage flexes so much that there are times (or used to be, before hardened doors) that they would look back and couldn't see the rear of the plane. That's reassuring, in the sense that you'd rather see it flex than break, but still somewhat disconcerting.
[This message has been edited by Western Airlines (edited 04-03-2002).]