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Posted on 12/12/2005 9:57:19 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail.
The 737 is the B-52 of commercial aviation. They just keep on ticking.
That's why if JetBlue had bought the 737-800 in the first place they wouldn't passenger load limits on transcon flights between the US West Coast and New York-JFK.
If Boeing had modernized the 727 by replacing the 3-man cockpit with the 757 2-man cockpit and changing it to a twin engine configuration, it's quite possible the 727 would have continued being the most popular jet airliner. It was only after the the 727 was discontinued that the 737 orders really started increasing.
The Next Generation 737 is almost a new aircraft compared to older 737 models. It has two totally new wings and new avionics. It has the same dimensions as the classic 737's so it fits at gates designed for older 737's and can use the same ground equipment, but in many ways it is mostly a new plane.
As a frequent flyer, I generally feel safe in 737s, especially compared to the A319 and A320, which just don't seem solid to me, or MD-80s, which are outright flexible (just sit with your shoulder against the wall near an emergency exit and you'll see).
But the single scariest airplane I've been on was an ancient 737 flown by Aloha Air, just last year. This was an original-issue model with the engines tucked under the wings without pylons. It was of the same vintage as the one that went "convertible" off Hawaii many years ago due to age, salt-air corrosion and the stress of countless island-hopping decompressions. This one had riveted reinforcement plates running down the full length of the fuselage to avoid the same fate. Not confidence-inspiring. Maybe Air Sibera runs older, more run-down planes than that one. But it got us from island to island in one piece. Keeps on ticking, indeed.
Wasn't the first one off the line the prototype? I thought NASA had already sent it to the Smithsonian.
The first 707 is at the new Smithsonian, but it had so many modifications that it don't look much like a 707 anymore.
Actually, the A320's that are out now with the high bypass engines can do coast to coast without any problems. Our first batch of A320's (from Braniff II) had problems doing BWI-PHX on a hot summer day. But our newer 320's and 319's easily did BOS-SFO or LAX-JFK. We have a 319 that does Phoenix to San Jose Costa Rica without any problems, and we also go to Cancun from Phoenix without much problems (even less now that we have ETOPS).
Nice bird...just avoid that hard-over rudder...could ruin your day!
You will get a kick out of this, from the December issue of Air Transport World "Through the Years"
30 years ago: ALPA and United's pilots may have won all the battles but lost the war on the 737 three-man crew issue. UAL sold two more 737s in November and has another tabled for 1976. It also plans to sell 10 others.
The 737 is probably the world's most overpowered airliner, and the Southwest pilots seem to delight in this fact during takeoff. If the country ever needs another medium bomber or cruise missile platform, the 737 would be just the ticket.
The Dash-80 really wasn't a prototype. It was a technology demonstrator. The fuselage was derived from the Boeing 367 Stratocruiser. I'm not quite sure if the wings were adapted from the B-47. The fuselage width of the KC-135 wasn't settled till the first order for them came from the USAF. Boeing later was forced to make the commercial 707 fuselage four inches wider after Pan Am ordered 25 DC-8's be delivered after the first 20 707's.
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