Love letters to the 737
Published 9:00 pm Monday, February 13, 2006
It’s Valentine’s Day, so why not go with a 737 lovefest here at the Herald’s aero blog?
Here’s a link (poached from blogmaster Scott Hamilton at Leeham Co.) to Flight International’s report on the history — and the future — of the 737. http://www.leeham.net/filelib/FltIntl_737.pdf
According to the magazine, Boeing was at one point ready to sell the 737 program to raise cash.
Key Quote, from a 2003 interview with the 737’s co-designer, the late Jack Steiner: “(T)he 737 was quickly in trouble. The programme struggled for engineering and financial resources against the massive investments then being poured into the newly launched 747, and by 1970 the company seriously considered selling the 737 programme to the Japanese aerospace industry to raise muchneeded funds. ‘We offered the whole caboodle to the Japanese. We were dead serious about trying to get money from anything. I can’t tell you that we would have gone through with it, but the intention was there. We were broke,’ said Steiner.”
Hamilton — who I think would admit to having a love-hate relationship with 737s — takes up the topic in this essay: http://www.leeham.net/filelib/ScottsColumn021406.pdf
Key Quote: “While some, including this writer, criticize the 737 for having a 1950s-designed fuselage and narrow seat bottoms to match, making the plane uncomfortable for long trips, there is no denying the success of the plane. Even though the Airbus 320 family has been outselling the 737 in recent years, Boeing points out that the 737 is lighter and data filed with the US Department of Transportation backs up Boeing’s sales pitch that the 737 costs less per hour to operate than the A320.”
Meanwhile, The News-Tribune in Tacoma http://www.thenewstribune.com/business/story/5520975p-4973833c.html talked about the sexy new mission for the 737 — ocean-hopping with the new -700ER.
Key Quote: “(T)his plane – the 737-700ER – is the ultimate fulfillment of Boeing’s current marketing theory … (which) contends the largest emerging market for aircraft is for planes able to connect smaller distant cities nonstop.”
