Airliner World – May 2018

Boeing’s move into small

jet-powered airliners was a

reluctant one, but what

followed was an aircraft

that has remained in

production for more than

five decades.

AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/

MATTHIEU DOUHAIRE

28 AIRLINER WORLD JUNE 2018

D

esigned as the smallest

member of an emerging

family of jetliners, the

Boeing 737 was developed

as a means for the US

manufacturer to enter the previously

untouched short-haul sector and rep-

resented a natural progression from the

long-range 707 and medium-range 727.

What followed was an aircraft that

has remained in production for

more than five decades, see-

ing off home-grown competi-

tion from the Douglas DC-9 and

its MD-80/90 evolutions, and from

Europe where numbers of British

Aircraft Corporation’s (BAC) One-

Eleven quickly paled into insignifi-

cance compared with Boeing’s small

twin. Only Airbus’ A320 Family has

ever posed a serious challenge to the

US manufacturer’s dominance – today,

the competing European and US types

account for more than half of the cur-

rent 30,000-strong global airliner fleet.

Military Pedigree

Boeing’s initial entry into the

commercial market was a somewhat

reluctant one. The manufacturer had

built its reputation in the military

sector, having secured

consecutive, lucrative contracts

for two US Air Force strategic

bombers, the B-47 Stratojet

and the eight-engined B-52

Stratofortress during the

late 1940s.

The then Seattle-based

firm’s scepticism of the

civilian air transport

market was justified;

its last foray into the

sector, with the

Model 377 Stratocruiser, had landed the

company with a $15 million loss.

However, the KC-135 Stratotanker,

the winning design for the USAF’s jet-

powered aerial refuelling tanker pro-

gramme, proved to be the ideal oppor-

tunity for the manufacturer to offset

development costs for a passenger

aircraft. The resultant airliner, the 707,

was well received by the commercial

aviation market and changed the face

of long-haul travel, but carriers soon

demanded a shorter-range version of

the intercontinental jet.

Still grappling with the start-up and

production costs of the 707 and facing

conflicting demands from potential

customers over the layout and preferred

number of engines of the new design,

many of Boeing’s senior manage-

ment team was unenthusiastic.

But proceed they did. The first

Boeing’s Best S eller

Now 10,000 deliveries in, and with thousands more examples on order, the 737 has enjoyed a

remarkable history. Airliner World’s Craig West shines the spotlight on Boeing's baby.