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As much as I love the 777, something about flying a jet that really doesn’t need me around to do what it does, leaves something to be desired. I often wished I could roll the thing just once to give my passengers a lasting memory, but then there would be the problem of the other jerk sitting next to me who would probably tell on me.

A story told to me by the son of a now deceased American Airlines executive. I was a classmate of the son, and my dad was a corporate peer of my classmate's grandfather, so we knew the family quite well.

According to this story, his dad, a former AF pilot (trash haulers?) was deeply involved in AA approving the purchase of the Lockheed L1011s for their fleet. A preface to this next, I know for a fact he was rated for everything that AA flew at the time, but I don't know if that makes this next "legal" or believable. During one demo flight with several other AA execs and some Lockheed brass and techs he asked to take the controls. As he flew the airplane he asked several questions about the physical capabilities of the airplane. He finally said "so it can do a roll, if necessary?" The Lockheed pilot said "sure."

Yep. You guessed it. According to this story my friends dad promptly did a barrel roll in an L1011. Worked perfectly. They bought more planes than they had been planning. However, his dad left AA not long afterwards. No connection.

Oh, and don't leave.