[Tibet.pdf seems to have been updated in 2020. You are not allowed to view links.
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Loginit references email from John Kirkley from 23 Feb. 2020]
Also: there may be a better version of Flying Men, Flying Machines now. At the beginning of the 21st century, a technically improved online version of the documentary was provided by Texas Tech University, and nowadays, the documentary can be watched at
The full documentary You are not allowed to view links.
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LoginThe 727 Takhli jump tests start at You are not allowed to view links.
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Loginfrom pages 48-57 of that Tibet.pdf. All very detailed. I copy here, so searching by text will find this post.
(Names the pilot as Bill Welk during the tests)
As early as 1961, the CIA’s Development Projects Division had declared that the aircraft needed for any overflights of Tibet was to have sufficient speed to complete the entire mission during the hours of darkness and to carry fuel for 3,000 miles. The plane had to possess a high degree of engine reliability to return over the Himalayas with one engine inoperative, a drop door that could be opened in flight, and a pressurized cabin (for the high altitude cruise segment of the flight) that could be depressurized upon arrival at the drop zone. The 727 with its ventral exit seemed to be the solution.
In 1962, Air America’s CEO George Doole persuaded the Boeing Company to develop a cargo floor and a cargo door and to make test flights in the use of the normal ventral exit. After 2 successful test flights made in 1963, Boeing developed a 727 cargo version. After some financial discussions inside the CIA – Doole wanted to have the 727s for Tibet, the CIA only accepted to order them after MATS had told SAT that they were necessary for the Inter-Island contract –, Doole ordered 3 Boeing 727Cs for Air Asia, to be used by Southern Air Transport and Air America (Leary, Manuscript, ch. VI, pp. 619-621, in: UTD/Leary/B19F5).
According to FBI material put together after the D.B.Cooper hijacking, “in 1963-1964, The Boeing Company had a team of 20 to 30 engineers and test pilots experimenting with the air stairs of the Boeing 727 to determine the plane’s adaptability for dropping cargo or personnel.
In the tests conducted the air stairs were removed and packages were dropped from the plane using an especially designed chute” (FBI paper labelled “SE 164-81”, p.2, and “DB Cooper-8376”, kindly sent to the author by Dr. Robert Edwards on 1 March 2020).
The decision to buy Boeing 727s had not only been based on the desire by MATS to convert from DC-6s to jets in Southern AT’s inter-island contract with MATS, but also on the need for faster planes to support overflights of Tibet (STBarnum). 273 In late 1966, the 727s were delivered, 274 but it took quite a while, until such a jump training is known to have been done. Of course, this was a top secret operation, and in such a case, information was given only according to the “need to know”-principle.
What this principle means, is very well explained by former Air America and Southern Air Transport Air Freight Specialist John Kirkley who, in 1968, participated in training jumps from a SAT 727: “As you may know, all of our operations were on a need to know basis. During my indoctrination to the company in Taipei in 1965, I signed a document stating that I would not discuss any operations I was involved in or I would be subject of being fired. I was not given a copy of this document and assumed it was put in some personal file. When being sent on a specific operation we were encouraged not to talk about anything we did, even with other employees, however information trickled down. The accuracy of hearsay depended on whether you thought the source was credible. […]
When the company knew that reporters or politicians would be in Vientiane on some sort of fact finding mission, we were informed at our meetings to be aware of this when out in the town and especially in bars at night. Information of our operations was secret.” 275 In a memo dated 29 November 1971 (released in 2009), the CIA admitted that “the Boeing 727 aircraft also have drop capabilities out the ventral exit which can be opened in flight and Southern has crews trained in this procedure.” 276
This is what can also be seen in the Air America documentary Flying Men, Flying Machines. A Portrait of Air America, which was made around 1970 277 , where the segment about training jumps and drops made from a Southern Air Transport’s 727 appears from 1 hour, 08 minutes, 40 seconds onwards. Flying Men, Flying Machines. A Portrait of Air America can now be watched at You are not allowed to view links.
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Login . The comment to that scene is purely technical, saying that the cabin could be depressurized before the drop and pressurized again after the drop, that is for the return flight. Since 1985, it was also known that the Boeing 727s were tested at Takhli for air drops with conveyer belt and rollers and that the system was never used in operation, although it worked well in the tests. 278
Who knew about the SAT flights to “Oak Tree”, may have guessed that the training jumps and drops from the SAT 727 shown in the documentary had something to do with the Tibetan program. In the January 2014 number of Smokejumper Magazine, an article portrayed former smokejumper and Air America Air Freight Specialist (“kicker”) John Kirkley, who had been on a DC-6 mission in Okinawa October/November 1967 learning to be a morse code radio operator for night flying radio silence operations. 279
This sounds like a preparation for some sort of top secret mission, and indeed, in the Smokejumper Magazine article we read: “Kirkley was later selected as one of seven air-freight specialists sent to Takhli, Thailand, on a secret mission to train to jump and drop freight from a commercial Boeing 727 jet. ‘There was unrest in Tibet on the Chinese border and the CIA wanted to do some tests to see if it was feasible to make high-altitude drops of paratroopers and cargo from a 727,’ he said. After making a few jumps and dropping several loads of cargo, Kirkley said the mission was eventually scrubbed.” 280
I am very grateful to John Kirkley for having found the time to answer a couple of more questions about those jumps. Here are his answers:
“1. The exact date escapes me after 50 years, however I believe the date was in May 1968. 281 I recall the plane was unpainted had no markings 282 & I have no record of the tail number of the plane we jumped.
2. Yes, the test were only conducted with AFS from Vientiane and a couple of CIA case officers (customers). No Tibetans were involved in this test operation.
3. The rear stair case in the 727 was removed and the exit was then covered with riveted sheet metal. This made a sliding board that we sat on and slide out the rear with a static line hooked to the plane.
4. The test were done in the morning at approx. 1,200 ft. 283 and the outside air
temperature at Takhli was warm (70-80°). When we jumped or slide out the rear exit, the pilot put the flaps & landing gear down in a landing configuration in order to reduce the speed to (approx.) 135-150 knots.
I noticed when we exited the 727 there was no noise or prop blast that I had experienced when jumping from reciprocating aircraft as a smokejumper. Inside the 727 cabin roller conveyers were installed to handle the cargo. Large cardboard boxes tied to a pallet were used for the cargo with parachutes attached. We were told that these were test to see if it was feasible to make drops of men and supplies in Tibet. […] As far as I know drops were never made from the 727 in Tibet.” 284
John Kirkley, who left Air America in 1969, is not aware of more tests. He recognized some of the kickers that appeared in the documentary, but couldn’t say if the jumps and drops from the SAT 727 shown in the documentary were the tests he was involved in or if these were tests made on another occasion. 285 Former Air America Air Freight Specialist Dan Gamelin reports that all people he had asked did confirm that the scene shown in Flying Men Flying Machines was the last occasion when such drops and jumps were made from a SAT 727. 286
There were, of course, more SAT 727 flights to Takhli – for example, “Doc” Johnson flew SAT 727 N5055 to Takhli between 22 and 24 April 70 and SAT 727 N5092 between 4 and 7 March 1971 287 –, but these shuttles for the LSG probably only carried some sort of supplies. The “need to know”-principle described above may explain, why so little is known about the exercise jumps and drops made from a 727.
It was Thomas (“T.J.”) Thompson, who cleared up a couple of things about the 727 drop, when John Kirkley spoke with him on 28 March 2020: “First, Lou Rucker, (deceased) former OSS and airborne officer was running the program. T.J. was his deputy on the project and he did the set-up in the 727 with roller conveyors and the slide out the back. […]
Also, he wanted to make the jump with us but Rucker told him no, he wanted him to be in the trail plane making the video. Jim Rhyne was the pilot of the Volpar chase plane […] and a professional photographer was hired to take the video of the drop, but he got sick and puked all over the plane about 10 minutes into the flight so T.J. picked up the video camera and did the shoot. This was the only jump/drop/video made by the CIA. He also said that the Tibet funds dried up and that was the reason the 727 project was cancelled and was not used to drop in Tibet. It was not as I heard the plane was unstable at altitude.
He said all the logistics of making the drop had been done before we went to test at Takhli and they had intended to use it until the funds were cut.” 288 The pilot of the 727 during the training drops and jumps was Bill Welk.
“No, I’m not aware of more test. This was what I heard at the time.” (John Kirkley, e-mail dated 23 February 2020). “I recognized the kicker releasing the load […]. The guy sliding out the back may possibly be […], but it is too fast to be sure. […] As to whether this was a different occasion I can’t be sure. Details have become rather foggy after half a century.” (John Kirkley, e-mail dated 25 February 2020).
“I recognized the kicker releasing the load […]. The guy sliding out the back may possibly be […], but it
is too fast to be sure. […] As to whether this was a different occasion I can’t be sure. Details have become rather foggy after half a century.” (John Kirkley, e-mail dated 25 February 2020).
But why, then, such a scene is shown in the documentary? Well, the documentary Flying Men Flying Machines was commissioned by Air America, and that possibly by order of the CIA. 300 You have Air America’s CEO George Doole saying the introductory words, and it is his voice that explains the structure of the Company, its offices and that even comments some scenes, including the one that introduces the section about the 727 operation.
The reason why the segment about the air drops and jumps from a 727 was included in the documentary seems to be that, as the 727 was never used for drops and jumps into Tibet, the drop and jump training was no longer considered to be secret.
On the contrary, the scenes filmed in 1968 probably for internal documentation only, 301 could demonstrate the drop capability of the 727 – something that potential buyers might be interested in. In 1976, former CIA General Counsel Lawrence R. Houston reported to the US Senate that “already in the late 1960s an internal decision was made about the 727s that: … ‘we probably couldn’t justify this major airlift with the big jets, and so we started getting rid of them. See, they had no utilization to speak of in Southeast Asia.
A couple of supply flights went into [another area] and I think we used prop planes for that, to my recollection.’” 302 Furthermore, as early as 10 February 1970, the Executive Committees of Air America and Air Asia noted “that the USAF does not intend to renew Air America’s [Yokota-centered] Booklift Contract beyond June 30, 1970.
The Booklift Contract has grossed approximately $3,000,000 in transport revenues during the past year. The two DC-6A/B and two DC-4 aircraft now utilized on the Booklift Contract would be released for other use or disposition.” 303 Although the Yokota-based 727s were not involved in the Booklift Contract, this notice may have been considered as some sort of signal that the end of operations out of Yokota may not be that far away.
This is confirmed by a letter dated 28 March 1970, in which the head of the FAA’s Pacific Division wrote George Doole: “Our people at Yokota Air Base, Japan, tell me that there are a number of rumors indicating the possibility that Air America may terminate its maintenance facilities at Yokota sometime this summer.” 304
Even clearer is a letter that George Doole, as Consultant to SAT, wrote to the Contracting Officer of the USAF’s Military Airlift Command on 13 March 1970: “Southern, as you know, has two Boeing 727s based in Japan and is also using a DC-6 hired two days a week from Air America to perform the Iwo Jima and Marcus flights. Usage of the 727s has, since the beginning of February 1970, declined to a point where it appears operation will result in a substantial loss and if Southern is to stay in the inter-island business, which it very much wants to do, additional flying will need to be found. In some way or another we will have to be able to realize a bit over 400 727 flying hours per month or 180,000 miles, if we are to make ends meet and continue our performance for MAC. […] We are now at something of a crossroad. If we can stay in Yokota with our 727s, we are prepared to include in the package one DC-4 to meet the requirements which are listed in your 9 March request for a proposal. The operation of a DC-4 as our only activity in Japan does not appear practicable.” 305
In that case, the appearance of the 727 jump and drop sequence in the documentary seems to have been intended as some sort of advertising. On 18 November 1971, George Doole even offered the Chairman of SAT at Miami to buy the entire airline. 306
Against this background, the comment made in the SAT document of 29 November 1971 mentioned above – “the Boeing 727 aircraft also have drop capabilities out the ventral exit which can be opened in flight and Southern has crews trained in this procedure” 307 sounds like a search for new work to be assigned to Southern Air Transport’s 2 Air America-owned Boeing 727s. 308
So it seems to be logical to assume that the documentary Flying Men Flying Machines, which already by omitting all of Air America’s paramilitary operations in Laos looked somehow like a publicity film, was to be shown to a larger public. This may have been contracting officers, buyers, 309 press people or even selected TV stations.
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