FedEx Delivers 727 To Technical School

So imagine the nice man in the pinstriped shirt and blue shorts ringing your doorbell and asking you to "sign here." Imagine that you're signing for a big, big package -- a Boeing 727-100. Be sure to spell your name correctly.

FedEx Thursday delivered the aircraft to the Guilford Technical Community College near Greensboro (NC). The school will use the jet to teach commercial aircraft maintenance and to familiarize flight students with the complexities of the 727 cockpit.

"The logistics of working on a larger aircraft is a world of difference," Tim Culbreth, an aviation-maintenance instructor, said in an interview with the Winston-Salem. On a plane the size of the other ten aircraft in the school's fleet -- mostly GA aircraft, "you can have 50 people working on an airplane. On the others, two guys might get in each other's way."

The FedEx donation to GTCC is one of three aircraft sent at no cost to schools around the country. If that sounds magnanimous, figure it this way: FedEx plans to open a hub in Greensboro about five years from now. This is a self-motivated contribution.

FMI: http://technet.gtcc.cc.nc.us