April 9, 1967
He makes his maiden flight first Boeing 737.
If you’ve been on a plane for the last 50 years, chances are it was a 737, as it is the most successful commercial airliner ever built.
Of course, their accidents 737 Max recent years have written a black page in the history of an aircraft that in April 2018 broke a record, as Boeing exceeded 10,000 deliveries of such aircraft to airlines.
The first 737 was presented on January 17, 1967 and made its first flight three months later. He was baptized by flight attendants from the 17 airlines that had placed orders to obtain it.
The German Lufthansa received the 737-100 later in the year, to become the first European company to acquire a new American Boeing aircraft.
The next day, the United Airlines received its first 737, a little bigger (it was the 737-200), to fit more seats, which was to prove to be more popular.
“In those early years, the 737 was a very powerful, very reliable aircraft,” Graham Simons, an aeronautical historian, told CNN. “Some of them were even used for landing on gravel runways and they still do, in northern Canada. In the full season, some European charter companies flew them for 18-20 hours a day, without any problems “.
Compared to the previous two Boeing planes, 707 and 727, the 737 was smaller and cheaper. Its two main competitors at the time, the BAC-111 and the DC-9, also had two engines, but these were positioned close to the tail of the aircraft, making the rear of the cockpit narrower and noisier.
Boeing designers put the 737 engines under the wing, reducing noise and making maintenance easier, as engineers could reach them without a ladder.
As the 737 sat very low on the ground, it was easier to load (it could be done from the back of a truck, without special equipment), as well as refueling. Combined with the easier access of the passengers, since they did not need external stairs (the plane had its own), the stay time at the big airports was reduced from 40 to 90 minutes, saving money.
In addition, as the 737 had six seats in each row while the competing planes had five, it could carry more passengers. “It became a very good money-making machine,” explains Simons.
At the same time, the 737 was the first aircraft to implement an innovation that would eventually become standard on flights. While at the time the planes needed four people to fly – two pilots, a flight engineer and a navigator – the Boeing could fly safely with only two pilots, due to its advanced systems.
Its success was overshadowed by the beginning of the decade 1990, when there were two accidents over a period of three years. But in 2012, the 737 became the first commercial aircraft to break the 10,000 order barrier.
At that time, one third of commercial flights were made with 737 and such an airplane took off or landed somewhere on the planet every two seconds.
The Boeing 737 Max was announced in 2011 and was the fourth generation aircraft. It came in response to the Airbus A320neo, which offered significantly higher fuel efficiency.
Boeing already had more than 5,000 orders for the Max (raising the total number of orders for the 737 above 16,000) when the tragedy struck.
Two deadly accidentsboth by plane 737 MAX 8occurred on October 29, 2018 and March 10, 2019.
In both cases, the aircraft’s systems received erroneous indications from a faulty sensor, causing the aircraft nose to be lowered. The pilots did not know how to react and tried desperately to raise their noses, but to no avail.
In total 346 people died on these two flights, forcing Boeing to land its entire 737 Max fleet.
According to internal documents released in early 2020, a Boeing employee wrote that the plane “was designed by clowns, supervised by monkeys”.
The 737 Max returned to the air a year ago, but Boeing suffered a potentially irreparable blow from this case.
The company was asked to pay a $ 2.5 billion fine under its deal with the US Department of Justice, where it was accused of having critical information about Max, which it hid.
In total, this crisis is estimated to have cost her $ 20 billion, and even after Max’s return, Boeing deliveries were less than those of Airbus in 2021.
moneyreview.gr
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