The Boeing 737

 Hey Aviators

Welcome back to the blog, today we will be talking about a very special aircraft, the aircraft in question is the Boeing 737. 

History of the Boeing 737

The Boeing 737 was developed by the American manufacturer Boeing in the year 1967. The aircraft was designed to dominate short-haul routes that would typically not exceed 3 hours. At the time most of the aircraft that operated short-haul routes either had 3 engines or used a t-wing design with the aircraft engines being mounted at the back of the aircraft near the tail. Boeing took a huge engineering leap forward by placing only 2 engines under the wing of the aircraft, Boeing also added features to early models of the 737-100s and 737-200s such as gravel kits to allow the planes to land on gravel runways, 737-200s that are over 40 years old still fly today in rural Canada where there are not proper runways in place, all because of the gravel kit. Since the aircraft was developed Boeing has constantly updated the 737 and created various variants to suit the demands of airlines over the years. The variants range from the 737-100 to the 737-900, the latest variant being the 737 Max. As of 2020, over 14 000 Boeing 737 had been built, this proves that the aircraft is very successful with Boeing still having orders for the Max version in 2022.

The first variant of the Boeing 737 ever built, the 737 100.

Facts about the Boeing 737

The Boeing 737 is the most widely recognised and utilised aircraft in the world with a 737 operating on every single continent in the world, the 737 is also the most popular commercial aircraft in South Africa with the aircraft dominating the fleets of domestic airlines in South Africa. On average, there are more than 1000 Boeing 737 flying in the sky at any time of the day. The Boeing 737-800 is the most popular version of the aircraft with over 5000 of the type being built, production of the type ran from the year 1998 till 2020. the type costs $90 million with the largest operator of the type being the Irish carrier Ryanair. The aircraft typically seats 180 passengers depending on the airline's seat layout, it can fly at a maximum altitude of around 12000m above sea level at a cruising speed of around 700km/h. The aircraft has a height of 12.5m, a length of 39.5m, and a wingspan of 35.8m, the aircraft can also fly a maximum range of just over 3500km. 

Boeing's most popular variant of the 737, the Boeing 737-800.

Bad publicity surrounding the 737

As of 2022, aviation is the safest form of transportation with experts stating that aviation is so safe, that you should be more worried about the car trip to the airport than the actual flight itself, but before this aviation was actually very dangerous, the 70s and 80s were a very deadly era for aviation in terms of crashes. The problem with the 737 is that it was popular during these times when aviation was still trying to become safer, as a result of this, there have been a number of 737 crashes in the past. Coming into the 21st Century, Aviation safety was at an all-time high and constantly improving, that was until 2018. In 2018 Lion Air flight JT 610 crashed 13 minutes after takeoff, what startled investigators is the fact that the aircraft was Boeing's latest variant of the 737, the 737 Max and it had been delivered to the Indonesian carrier just 6 months prior to the crash. While Investigations were still being performed, the world was given more bad news, another 737 Max had crashed. Ethiopian Airlines reported that flight ET302 had crashed killing all passengers on board and the aircraft operating the flight was a 737 Max that was less than a year old, the question that all investigators had in their mind was, "What was wrong with the 737 Max", 2 crashes of brand-new aircraft less than 6 months apart.

Wreckage from flight ET302.

The Max promised airlines huge fuel cost reductions and more capacity for passengers, in order to make the aircraft, more fuel-efficient bigger engines had to be fitted to the plane. The problem with this is that the 737 is based off of a design from the 1960s which had been slightly altered over the years, the max's engines were too big to fit directly under the wing of the plane such as with the original, so Boeing moved the engines forward which meant that the engines sat Infront of the wings instead of under. This change in positioning changed the center of gravity for the plane and caused the plane to have a tendency to pitch up which could lead to a stall, to combat this pitching action, Boeing developed the MCAS system. The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) would receive information from sensors outside the aircraft and would automatically push Max's nose down if it was pitched up too high to prevent a stall. The problem is that MCAS received the wrong information from the sensors and pushed the nose of the plane down into a steep dive overriding any input from the pilot which eventually led to the crash. 

Boeing's latest variant of the 737, the 737 Max.

A brief explanation of the MCAS problem.

This led to the Max being grounded globally by regulators such as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) until the issue was fixed, I am happy to say that as of 2022 the issue has been fixed and the max is safely back in the skies, the Max issue has led to stricter checks being performed by regulatory bodies when an aircraft is being certified as well as more certification tests. 

Southwest Airline's grounded fleet of  Boeing 737 Max aircraft back in 2020.

It is clear that the 737 is a very iconic aircraft that has had its fair share of ups and downs, it is great to still see it flying and it is very comforting to know that it will be flying for many more decades, hopefully, Boeing can continue producing wonderful aircraft like this for years to come. That's all for today, till the next time, STAY FLYING HIGH.