230 737s! http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204517204577043760571868178.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
That little airplanes a marvel of efficiency and reliability. Nobody, including Boeing, has been able to design something at the level of improvement to make it profitable to build. Every time somebody comes up with an idea, the 737 guys tweak the design and keep it ahead of the competition. Looking back at my time with the 707 we were excited as hell when we got an order for 25 airplanes, now they have one for 237. Priceless!
Not to rain on anyone's parade, but that really is an ambitious order for Lion, and orders do get cut back and canceled, (see the 787 program). Even so, if Lion only took half of that order it would still be a great thing.
Lion placed a massive order for the 737-900ER some years back. Ordered more aircraft than their fleet needs and folks wondered if Lion was really planning on being the source for anyone else that needed one of these. Have not kept track on their -900ER orders for a couple of years so wonder if any of the new 737 orders are conversions from this old order. Jeff
Are IMF "loans" behind this, somehow? If so, with the repayment terms negotiated down and debt forgiveness, the US will be paying for it. Score 0 for Boeing and the US in that case.
Where is the actual plant located? Is it attached to Boeing field and accessible by the light rail on the way to SeaTac?
Renton Municipal Airport is single runway on the south shore of Lake Washington. The town of Renton surrounds it and on the east side is the Boeing Renton Plant That has been there since 1941 but before that it was just a grass strip that was the departure point of the ill fated Wiley Post-Will Rogers flight to Alaska.They used the lake, however to begin their flight in a Lockheed float plane. The plant was originally built to produce the Boeing Sea Ranger patrol plane but it was converted to build B-29's during the war.Only one Sea Ranger was built and it was known as The Lone Ranger. The first 707 made its first take off from there as did the 727 and 757. The place has a lot of history and I spent 17 years there working on the 707,720,707-300/400, C-5 proposal, and the initial design work on the 747.Now the field is covered in 737,s that are being pumped out like bars of soap, a little more than one a day, I think but maybe it's more by now..
I would like to add that Boeing Field is in south Seattle, west of Renton and is also known as King County Municipal. Boeing field is the site of The Museum of Flight and also accommodates the Boeing Delivery Center, both on the west side of the airport.. It's also where the Blue Angles base when they fly for Seafair. It is a single large runway capable of heavy commercial traffic. Any size you want.
I rode an AirTran 737-700 both ways on my recent trip to Seattle. Nice ride - IF you pay the extra $20 to get the extra legroom at the overwing exit row, and IF you bring your own food on board!
I thought of the original 737 as a 'chopped-up' 707, with the big vertical stabilizer. They looked almost awkwardly short. Wasn't it 'redesigned' at some point (new wings, engines, cockpit, etc.)? The one-a-day being pumped out is amazing. I read somewhere that at any given second, there are over 1,000 of them airborne in the world. Most popular aircraft in history. Dethroned the C-47?
The 737,727,and 707 share the same cab and nose and upper forward fuselage. On the original 737 it got a new aft fuselage that is shorter and totally different from the rest. It got a new wing and engine configuration that was not very efficient overall. The program came very close to failure but after some serious tweaking and CFM engines mounted below the wing, things took off. Then came numerous stretches and many minor adjustments that improved the airplane and made it the most efficient and reliable thing in the air. The -900 with two engines now does the same mission with as many pax as its old grandpa, the 707, did 54 years ago. The only archaic and problematic issue is the older cab configuration from the 707 that is noisy due the angular windshield arrangement. It would require a major and expensive modification to fix that and probably would require a recertification..
Bob, wouldn't the 757 nose have fit? The aircraft have the same fuselage diameter, so I think it could have been done (and, IMO, should have been done for the -600/-700/-800/-900) at relatively little cost. There might have had to have been a recertification, but I think in the long run the cost would have been worth it. And what bugs me more is that the upcoming 737 MAX still is being shown with the old front end. Get modern, Boeing!
I agree on all points but the answers that I have always gotten on the subject is cost. The flite deck, windshield cage, and new glass is some of the most expensive hardware on the airplane.
Never liked the 737 as good as the 757. The 757 was too expensive to manufacture I guess, but it has a better safety record that the 737 calculated by the amount of aircraft made and percent of accidents overall. The 777 is king with only one major accident, and that was not the aircrafts fault it seems(I have alot of stories about tha BA 777 LHR landing). Also all 757 fatal accidents were caused by pilot/ground crew error, wich is not the case with the 737's. Every updated model has had a fatal accident pointing to design or manufacturing problems. Its still a great aircraft, but not as good as the 777 or 757.
The 757 was one of Boeing's best but from what I heard and read it didn't gain favor because of the single aisle feature. Pilots liked it, airlines liked it because it was a money maker , but it was a narrow body in a wide body world.
I was hoping that the 737 replacement would be a bit wider with a 2-2-2 layout in coach, and I think that Boeing was leaning in that direction, but Airbus' announcement of the A320neo caused Boeing to quickly revise their thinking toward something quicker and less expensive, so unfortunately, we're going to continue to be saddled with 3-3 aircraft.
