377  You say: "What does Sailshaw think? He was a Boeing engineer. We have some other engineers reading this. Your thoughts?

I do not think it was obvious that the 727 could fly safely with the stairs extended. I do not think it was widely known or easily deducible that the stairs could be deployed in flight. It would have been easy for Boeing to have put in a landing gear squat switch activated interlock preventing airstair door opening after liftoff. I think Cooper knew it could be opened. How did he know?"

I Say:   Boeing was trying to sell more 727's to the US Government and did the test flights at Moses Lake (our testing field East of Seattle) and had full photo coverage by our photo unit. With the photo movies the sales team could discuss the advantages of a plane like the 727 that could take-off, fly, and land with the Air Stairs deployed. I eat each Thursday with a retired Boeing Sales person at my yacht club and will ask him this Thursday what he knows about these demonstration flights for the US Government. The information was for sales to the government and not for the public to know all about (to help with stopping public thoughts about uses of the 727). Knowing what we know now, the Cooper Vane lock-out would have been good to have in the original design and Norjak would not have happened. Squat switch requires electrical connections and was not considered when the Cooper Vane was designed as it works without power just airflow.

Bob Sailshaw
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PS Sheridan made demo jumps dressed just like DB Cooper including loafers before Norjak. He was also dressed like DB in the Boeing News add for the Sky Diving Club including loafers and prior to Norjak

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Shootin’ from the hip here, but wasn’t Cooper observed to have a small bag of unknown content with him.  Something like 4”x12”x14”?  Can’t experiment with it now, but used to have a pair of Jungle Boots which I could scrunch down real tight into my kit.  Just guessing, but why not a pair in the bag with skull cap, pair of gloves, small gog’s, and roll of 1” gun tape.  Little bit of kit in a small package could make life a lot easier.  He had about ½ hour on his own back there where no one saw what he did.

Prospector,

Would you care to elaborate a bit on your background in parachuting and related activities?  Also, are you located outside the USA?

The paper bag that Cooper had has usually been described as about the size of those used by fast food carry out stores (or is it "take away" stores in your part of the world?).  The dimensions you gave are somewhat larger.

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Shootin’ from the hip here, but wasn’t Cooper observed to have a small bag of unknown content with him.  Something like 4”x12”x14”?  Can’t experiment with it now, but used to have a pair of Jungle Boots which I could scrunch down real tight into my kit.  Just guessing, but why not a pair in the bag with skull cap, pair of gloves, small gog’s, and roll of 1” gun tape.  Little bit of kit in a small package could make life a lot easier.  He had about ½ hour on his own back there where no one saw what he did.

Prospector,

Would you care to elaborate a bit on your background in parachuting and related activities?  Also, are you located outside the USA?

The paper bag that Cooper had has usually been described as about the size of those used by fast food carry out stores (or is it "take away" stores in your part of the world?).  The dimensions you gave are somewhat larger.

Yup, outside US.  Nope, never left a perfectly serviceable F/W aircraft.  Hope to attend the next symposium or gathering and meet in-person some of the Cooper Vets who have researched this mystery down to the finest detail and whose work I’m following-up on to formulate a fact-based working hypothesis. Will bring my rĂ©sumĂ© and answer any and all questions eye-to-eye about personal stuff there.

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Shootin’ from the hip here, but wasn’t Cooper observed to have a small bag of unknown content with him.  Something like 4”x12”x14”?  Can’t experiment with it now, but used to have a pair of Jungle Boots which I could scrunch down real tight into my kit.  Just guessing, but why not a pair in the bag with skull cap, pair of gloves, small gog’s, and roll of 1” gun tape.  Little bit of kit in a small package could make life a lot easier.  He had about ½ hour on his own back there where no one saw what he did.

Prospector,

Would you care to elaborate a bit on your background in parachuting and related activities?  Also, are you located outside the USA?

The paper bag that Cooper had has usually been described as about the size of those used by fast food carry out stores (or is it "take away" stores in your part of the world?).  The dimensions you gave are somewhat larger.

Yup, outside US.  Nope, never left a perfectly serviceable F/W aircraft.  Hope to attend the next symposium or gathering and meet in-person some of the Cooper Vets who have researched this mystery down to the finest detail and whose work I’m following-up on to formulate a fact-based working hypothesis. Will bring my rĂ©sumĂ© and answer any and all questions eye-to-eye about personal stuff there.

Parking could become a problem. Be careful of the Vortex. 

And the next gathering might be held in Canada, Mexico, or elsewhere outside the USA, depending on the end results of the current Presidential election campaign.  I would personally suggest Costa Rico or Belize if the nutcases do succeed in taking over here.

Be advised that there is a lot of BS on the old DropZone Cooper threads, as you probably already know.  Things are much better on this thread thanks to Shutter's strict management.

To understand Cooper, you must freefall a mile in his loafers.  The suggestion was made that an opportunistic personality trait existed based on the assumption he had knowledge of 727 jump capabilities.  Now I’ll suggest he demonstrated manipulative tendencies based on an assumption he knew about V23.  Deeper yet into the rabbit hole.......

Cooper intended to commandeer a 727, extort negotiable currency, and escape by parachute.  It was not a suicide mission.  Cooper was calm, cool, and collected unless things were being perceived as not going his way (e.g. 1700hrs timeline restriction for deliverables, refuelling delays).  Cooper required repeated reassurance that there would be “no funny stuff”.  Cooper was perceived to have behaved in a childish mannerism when he received the cash in priority order – suggesting he got what he wanted most.  He wanted notes and matchbooks back but offered paper money (fingerprints?).  He appeared at ease with the operational aspects of parachutes.

Cooper ordered altitude of 10 000feet and direction south (Mexico) from SEA.  Cooper ordered aircraft into flight configuration for jump out of SEA (i.e. not enroute or over Mexico).  Cooper did not order V23.  Cooper insisted that once airborne from SEA that there would be no further touchdowns in the US, then relinquished and allowed a refueling stop in Reno.  Cooper seemed unsure about where he wanted to go as observed by flight attendant.  There is no described external influence forcing Cooper to jump when he jumped, he exited the aircraft on his own freewill and volition.  Air crew stated they knew they were over populated landscape when jump suspected.

Cooper was in control of the mission and had co-operation of the flight crew, he did what he did when he wanted to do it.  He jumped when he wanted to jump.  All he had to do was specify south and 10 000feet on a stormy night to get the aircraft on V23.  Looking at Mapsheet L1 - who would choose a flight path to the north, west, or east over the Cascades out of SEA?

Where in all of that is there any demonstrable evidence of specific intent to get himself into Mexico by hijacked aircraft?  If he intended to go to Mexico he would have gone to Mexico.  A soft-spoken thoughtful gentleman like Mr. Cooper wouldn’t tell a lie would he?

If the assumption is true, and the argument is valid, it creates a Cooper puzzle – did he get himself dropped-off close to where he got picked-up, picked-up close to where he got himself dropped-off, or both?

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To understand Cooper, you must freefall a mile in his loafers.  The suggestion was made that an opportunistic personality trait existed based on the assumption he had knowledge of 727 jump capabilities.  Now I’ll suggest he demonstrated manipulative tendencies based on an assumption he knew about V23.  Deeper yet into the rabbit hole.......

Cooper intended to commandeer a 727, extort negotiable currency, and escape by parachute.  It was not a suicide mission.  Cooper was calm, cool, and collected unless things were being perceived as not going his way (e.g. 1700hrs timeline restriction for deliverables, refuelling delays).  Cooper required repeated reassurance that there would be “no funny stuff”.  Cooper was perceived to have behaved in a childish mannerism when he received the cash in priority order – suggesting he got what he wanted most.  He wanted notes and matchbooks back but offered paper money (fingerprints?).  He appeared at ease with the operational aspects of parachutes.

Cooper ordered altitude of 10 000feet and direction south (Mexico) from SEA.  Cooper ordered aircraft into flight configuration for jump out of SEA (i.e. not enroute or over Mexico).  Cooper did not order V23.  Cooper insisted that once airborne from SEA that there would be no further touchdowns in the US, then relinquished and allowed a refueling stop in Reno.  Cooper seemed unsure about where he wanted to go as observed by flight attendant.  There is no described external influence forcing Cooper to jump when he jumped, he exited the aircraft on his own freewill and volition.  Air crew stated they knew they were over populated landscape when jump suspected.

Cooper was in control of the mission and had co-operation of the flight crew, he did what he did when he wanted to do it.  He jumped when he wanted to jump.  All he had to do was specify south and 10 000feet on a stormy night to get the aircraft on V23.  Looking at Mapsheet L1 - who would choose a flight path to the north, west, or east over the Cascades out of SEA?

Where in all of that is there any demonstrable evidence of specific intent to get himself into Mexico by hijacked aircraft?  If he intended to go to Mexico he would have gone to Mexico.  A soft-spoken thoughtful gentleman like Mr. Cooper wouldn’t tell a lie would he?

If the assumption is true, and the argument is valid, it creates a Cooper puzzle – did he get himself dropped-off close to where he got picked-up, picked-up close to where he got himself dropped-off, or both?

Prospector, You are correct in stating that Cooper did not specify any airway.

But there were two airways between the Seattle VORTAC and the Portland VORTAC (which is now named the Battleground VORTAC).  The first is V-23 which was and is a dog-leg route between those two VORTACS and the second was V-23E (now designated V-495) which is a direct line between the VORTACS.

V-23E had higher terrain and could have presented a problem if the airliner didn't get up to 10,000 feet fairly fast and would have given Cooper problems if he had done a delayed drop in that area (especially with the several cloud layers and an overcast at about 5000 feet).

So the V-23 airway was selected by the flight crew and they never informed Cooper of that fact.  And it appears that Cooper was interested in jumping as soon as possible after take-off but no indication of a specific location for jumping.