robert edwards commentary on the details of the boeing air stairs tests is reasonable, and here:
with discussion about hydraulics

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also a later update
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this second post has images showing oscillations in airplane altitude. I think he made the graphs from the data in the fbi files?

Edwards makes an interesting point:
"If on Flight 305 the autopilot was engaged (as the FBI assures us was the case) and "altitude hold" was switched on (which I think probable), it would compensate for the pitch-up without any intervention by the pilot, and would return the airplane to the desired angle of attack and to the desired altitude. There would surely have been some oscillations in the airplane's altitude, in the cabin's equivalent altitude, and in the cabin rate-of-climb (rate of change of cabin pressure), as there were in Boeing Test 100-1, summarized in the graphs below.]"

also:
"[I believe that there were at least three relevant differences between the Boeing tests and Flight 305.
* In the Boeing tests, the landing gear was up. On Flight 305, the gear was down.
* In the Boeing tests, according to my correspondent, the autopilot was probably disengaged. On Flight 305, according to two statements to the FBI by Northwest's Director of Flight Operations (Technical), the autopilot was engaged throughout most of the segment between Seattle and Reno. A former senior FBI agent advised me that the FBI had no reason to question these statements.
* In Boeing Test 100-1, all the interior panels in the stairwell were removed. to avoid possible damage. I do not know what the aerodynamic effects might have been, but I suspect that this condition would have created more turbulence in the stairwell. In Boeing Test 100-3, the panels were re-installed. On Flight 305, all the panels were in place."



He has a nice pic of N727000 doing a test drop over the Pacific with the stairs removed. Interestingly, the payload and parachute descend at a more vertical angle from the plane, then I've seen in other test drops. (in other tests)

interestingly Edwards said
"Back on March 5, 2020, I had submitted a FOIA request for all reports relating to the Boeing test flights. The FBI replied on July 6, 2020, to the effect that they had searched for the reports and found nothing."


and then the FBI released the files with the detailed test reports.
Weird.

Are you sure the 727 autopilot maintained AOA? I see only altitude hold in a casual look through my manuals. It would respond to the lowered stair but only by sensing a change in baro altitude and pitching up to maintain the set value. I may be incorrect. I have not looked at it in depth yet.

377

Braden is still a fascinating DBC candidate.

When I spoke with MAC SOG MSgt Billy Waugh, he was quite certain Ted Braden was DB Cooper.
He said that most of his colleagues agreed.

Snowmman is in the building.

377

Braden is one of a tiny handful of named suspects who I think still warrant further investigation. It's shocking he has never been featured in one of these TV documentaries. Although, that's really the impact of the wiki page. Most people are lazy and will just go to the wiki page (which gets as many as 500k hits a month). Braden didn't have a wikipedia entry until I made one for him. Compared to everyone else listed on the wiki page, Braden just blows them away, so I've noticed that he has gotten more pub lately in those random news articles about the case that you come across.

Anyways, I've often said on podcast interviews and such that if you gave 100 random people the surface level details of the Cooper case and told them to invent who DB Cooper was, 85 of them would invent someone very similar to Braden. A feloniously minded master skydiver with balls the size of gas-giant planets whose whereabouts were unknown at the time.

However, no suspect is perfect and Braden isn't without his flaws, although his flaws aren't nearly as damning as other suspects' flaws. I don't care that his eyes were hazel and not brown (hazel can look brown), but I do care that he was 5'8 and scrawny. I don't think Cooper was any taller than six feet, but he was probably close to it, and it'd be difficult to peg someone who was 5'8 as six feet. But hey, Spec Ops types have lots of tricks and maybe he had lifts within his shoes or something. Who knows. But his height is a bit of problem.

The second issue that I have with Braden is that I have a hard time believing that his photos weren't shown to the stews. We know that he WAS investigated as early as Spring of 72 because a former MACVSOG member has described FBI agents interviewing him about Braden at a North Carolina drop zone. This seems accurate because of course he was a suspect. There should be no doubt that FBI agents inquired with the military about any ex-green beret types who could have done this and Braden's name surely came up. Braden was also a known rabble rouser at the time, due to his Ramparts interview where he exposed the info of MACVSOG running CIA ops in Laos illegally. However, I asked Larry Carr recently about Braden and he said it's a name he never came across at all in the case files. That was a long time ago and was before Braden was a "household name" in the Vortex, so maybe Carr just forgot about it.

Also, with the latest info we have about Cooper almost certainly choosing to jump with a 24 foot canopy over a 26 foot canopy, this really seems like something a whuffo would do. I'm guessing Braden would have chosen the safer canopy to jump with, but who knows, maybe he waived the increased risk of injury with a 24 footer in favor of getting to the ground faster.

Turns out an AOA indicator provides very useful info for general aviation pilots. My son owns and flies a two seat carbon fiber Aero Shark with two very up to date glass panels. He not only has an a AOA indicator on each LCD panel but also a voice annunciator that will give a loud verbal warning if AOA increases beyond safe limits given other factors such as airspeed. He bought the plane used from an Air National Guard F-16 pilot. The seller gave him a lot of useful tips about AOA, info that was omitted from my son’s basic flight training. My son told me if you stay on top of AOA you will never have an unintended stall.

377

The details don't work out.
But to feed the "what if"

But Braden supposedly worked in the past at a tool and die company.
machinist?

Don't have his full work history. not sure when he started trucking.

> Braden is one of a tiny handful of named suspects who I think still warrant further investigation. It's shocking he has never been featured in one of these TV documentaries. Although, that's really the impact of the wiki page. Most people are lazy and will just go to the wiki page (which gets as many as 500k hits a month). Braden didn't have a wikipedia entry until I made one for him.



The interesting thing about Braden, is that even though Pat his wife and his ex-MACV-SOG friends suspected him, apparently no one ever called the FBI and said "investigate Braden"

at least, not according to any records currently released.

Really need to do an FOIA on Braden.
If the fbi did investigate him with respect to a $250k insurance scam in the early '70s, per his wife Pat, that would be interesting info

I mean. divorce and a $250k scam in the right time frame.

Seems like a  "must-investigate-more"

I think Braden got a bunch of free passes because of Vietnam activities that were still secret.

The other thing people should be asking, is if Braden was so obvious, how come he wasn't mentioned until I introduced him?

And how, out of the Billions of possibles, did he pop out?