Some of you may be wondering as to what business I have with the Boeings or rather, what the Boeings have to do with you. Most probably, the Boeing 737 family is the biggest member of the Boeing Commercial Jets and may continue to hold that place for many more decades to come.
Some of you may be wondering as to what business I have with the Boeings or rather, what the Boeings have to do with you. Most probably, the Boeing 737 family is the biggest member of the Boeing Commercial Jets and may continue to hold that place for many more decades to come.
Aeroplanes are amazing man made creatures that make it possible for us to move hundreds of kilometres if not thousands in just a few hours. Without these wonder machines, life would have been very slow and the concept of the world being a "Global Village” would have never been a reality.
There are more to Aeroplanes than the Boeing; that said and done, the Boeing is probably the biggest manufacturer to have "churned” out the largest number of aeroplanes this planet has seen or is yet to see!
These are further divided into 3 main groups, "the first generation”, "the Classic” and "the Next Generation” aircrafts.The first generation production models are made up of the B737-100 and B737-200, these are the first models of the world’s most successful jet airliner family, Boeing’s 737 twinjet.
The 737 was conceived as a short range small capacity airliner to round out the Boeing jet airliner family beneath the 727, 720 and 707. Announced in February 1965, the 737 was originally envisioned as a 60 to 85 seater, although following consultation with launch customer Lufthansa, a 100 seat design was settled upon.
Design features included two under-wing mounted turbofans and 60% structural and systems commonality with the 727, including the same fuselage cross section
(making it wider than the competing five abreast DC-9 and BAC-111).
The 737-100 made its first flight on April 9 1967 and entered service in February 1968 with Lufthansa, while the last of 30 built was delivered to Malaysia-Singapore Airlines in October 1969.
By this time however the larger capacity 1.93m (6ft 4in) stretched 737-200 was in service after it had made its first flight on August 8 1967.
The Classic 737 Series which includes the 737-300, 737-400 and 737-500 models represented one of Boeing’s most successful products; when employees gathered to celebrate the great success of the "Classic” 737 series and the
transition to the Next-Generation 737 family of airplanes, Phil Condit, Boeing chairman and chief executive officer had this to say, "”The 737 is one of the greatest success stories of The Boeing Company”.
Condit was vice president and general manager of the Renton plant in 1984, when production of the Classic 737-300 began.
"Early on, we had serious concerns about the long-term viability of the program, but Boeing kept improving the airplane and the program really took off,” Condit recalled.
"Today, as we say goodbye to the Classic 737, we see a much different picture. The Next-Generation 737, which builds on the success of the Classic 737s, is the fastest-selling airplane family in commercial aviation history and will continue to play a major role in the future of Boeing”.
Though their production stopped between 1999 and 2000, there are so many of them still in use today. They could take another decade before they are eventually phased out!
The Boeing 737 Next Generation aircrafts are a short-to-medium-range airplane that is based on a key Boeing philosophy of delivering value-added technology to airlines with reliability, simplicity and reduced operating and maintenance costs.
These were first rolled out between 1996 and 2006 (depending on the models)In this category, there are the B737-600, B737-700, B737-800 and the B737-900ER (extended range, being the latest entrants).
These are the latest models to continue the 737’s pre-eminence as the world’s most popular and reliable commercial jet transport. The entire 737 family has won orders for more than 8,000 airplanes.
No other jet airplane in commercial aviation history has achieved the sales success such as that of the 737.