A Cooper vane (also sometimes called a Dan Cooper switch or D.B. Cooper device) is a mechanical aerodynamic wedge that prevents the ventral airstair of an aircraft from being lowered in flight. [1]
A Cooper vane (also sometimes called a Dan Cooper switch or D.B. Cooper device) is a mechanical aerodynamic wedge that prevents the ventral airstair of an aircraft from being lowered in flight. [1]
In the United States, following three hijackings in 1972, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered that Boeing 727 aircraft be fitted with Cooper vanes. [2] The device was named for an unidentified airplane hijacker dubbed D. B. Cooper, who used the rear stairway to exit a Boeing 727 in flight and make a parachute escape.
The Cooper vane is a very simple device: It consists of a spring-loaded paddle connected to a plate that prevents the ventral airstair of an aircraft from being lowered in flight. [1] When the aircraft is on the ramp, the spring keeps the paddle perpendicular to the fuselage, and the attached plate does not block the stairway. As the aircraft takes off, the airflow pushes the paddle parallel to the fuselage and the plate is moved underneath the stairway, preventing it from being lowered. Once the airflow decreases on landing, the spring-loaded paddle returns to its initial position, thereby allowing the stairs to be lowered again.
McDonnell Douglas DC-9 aircraft with ventral stairs were also equipped with Cooper vanes.
D. B. Cooper is a media epithet for an unidentified man who hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 aircraft, in United States airspace on November 24, 1971. During the flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington, the hijacker told a flight attendant he was armed with a bomb, demanded $200,000 in ransom, and requested four parachutes upon landing in Seattle. After releasing the passengers in Seattle, the hijacker instructed the flight crew to refuel the aircraft and begin a second flight to Mexico City, with a refueling stop in Reno, Nevada. About 30 minutes after taking off from Seattle, the hijacker opened the aircraft's aft door, deployed the staircase, and parachuted into the night over southwestern Washington. The hijacker has never been found or conclusively identified.
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The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper is a 1981 American crime thriller film about infamous aircraft hijacker D. B. Cooper, who escaped with $200,000 after leaping from the back of a Boeing 727 airliner on November 24, 1971. The bulk of the film fictionalizes Cooper's escape after he landed on the ground.
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The apparent success and instant notoriety of the hijacker known as D. B. Cooper in November 1971 resulted in over a dozen copycat hijackings within the next year all using a similar template to that established by Cooper. Like Cooper, the plan would be to hijack an aircraft, demand a ransom, and then parachute from that aircraft as a method of escape. To combat this wave of extortion hijackings, aircraft were fitted with eponymous "Cooper Vanes," specifically designed to prevent the aft staircase from being lowered in-flight. The Cooper Vane, as well as the widespread implementation of other safety measures such as the installation of Metal detectors throughout American airports, would spell the end of the Cooper copycats.