Sailshaw inaccuracies.
I’ve been corresponding with Cooper sleuth Eric Ulis who, using dates, found a likely hole in Sailshaw’s account of his interactions with short term tenant Sheridan Peterson.
Sailshaw claimed that during the time Sheridan Peterson roomed in his place, that Sheridan grilled him about 727 air stairs. Sheridan has adamantly insisted that this account was a lie.
Sheridan was Sailshaw’s tenant in 1961. The 727 design was not finished then as far as I can tell. Also Sailshaw claims to have told Sheridan that he, Sailshaw, wasn’t working on the 727 but rather the 737 air stairs (built for Alaska Airlines). This seems impossible in 1961.
737 design history from Google:
“Boeing wanted a true short-haul jet to compete with the Caravelle, BAC One-Eleven & DC-9 but was way behind them. The DC-9 was about to fly, the One-Eleven was well into its flight test program and the Caravelle had been in service for 5 years. They had some catching up to do. Designers Joseph Sutter and Jack Steiner began work on the 737 in November 1964.
The original 1964 specification was for a capacity of about 60-85 passengers, an economical operating range of between 100 and 1000 miles and to be able to break even at a 35% load factor. As a result of final design talks with launch customer Lufthansa the capacity was increased to 100, but the range and load factor figures still stand.”
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