Comments on: The Airplane That Isn’t

By: George

George — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 18:30:40 +0000

I always thought flying aboard a 757 was the closest I’d ever get to flying in a fighter jet. First one I ever flew in was Eastern Airlines from LGA to Orlando. I peeked into cockpit (first of the glass cockpits?) while boarding and asked the pilot if he were former military. His response, “crop duster pilot”. Loved the sound of the engines on takeoff and the acceleration. Flew one back from Iceland back in March of 2023 – such a smooth ride. As others have noted though, not the roomiest cabin.

By: Chen Yifan

Chen Yifan — Sat, 25 Nov 2023 03:23:49 +0000

Personally, China’s current aviation market urgently needs a short – and medium-range wide-body aircraft, rather than letting such aircraft as 737,320 fly all over the sky.

By: Leo Liang

Leo Liang — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 16:52:52 +0000

Great article, as a High-School student, I was amazed with you transcendent use of different textual and rhetorical features. Wish I can write as great as you.

By: Conrad Menzel

Conrad Menzel — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 07:55:23 +0000

Always look forward to your articles. Thank you.

By: Richard Debosek

Richard Debosek — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 01:36:01 +0000

Enjoyed your article on the 757 vs. the 737. I too love the 757 over the 737 and A320’s. I will add another 757 plus… it is the main landing gear of two 4 wheel bogeys vs. the two wheel mains of the 737 and A320 families. Those extra 4 wheels increase the 757’s safety. The 757 can stop quicker and they provide extra protection from blowouts. Keep up your great work.

By: acpleno

acpleno — Fri, 07 May 2021 07:18:07 +0000

All 737 operators (i.e. many more then just WN) steadfastly prop up the ridiculous 1950’s 737 cockpit design and automation philosophy, in order to minimize training costs. It is beyond criminal that the FAA and other regulators have allowed the 737 to trail so astonishingly behind modernity. As more and more minimally-trained pilots enter the ranks, the safety record of the 737NG/Max will continue to fall further and further behind the A320 and B777 and their successors. Airplanes that have come into being since the A320, with true contemporary and wholistic alerting and automation philosophy, coupled with remarkable and affordable computational power, are by definiton significantly safer platforms than the bolt-on-piecemeal situation the 737 finds itself in. Unfortunately the recent surge in 737Max orders indicates the regulators and operators will continue to trade lives in exchange for not ever having to “train” pilots how to fly a modern airplane.

By: schmitt trigger

schmitt trigger — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 20:17:48 +0000

My understanding is that the 737’s largest customer, Southwest, has steadfastly opposed anything which wouldn’t be 100% compatible with its existing fleet.

If my understanding is incorrect, I welcome the correction,

By: Paul Houle

Paul Houle — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 00:36:42 +0000

“There’s a place for the 737” is true, but “… and always will be” isn’t.

There will be a day when Boeing won’t be able to sell the 737. It could be competition: the Chinese will subsidize the C919 as much as they need to to make it successful in China, Africa, and developing Asia. The C919 will be a worse plane when it first comes out, but it is based on a better foundation and someday will be a better plane than the 737. Like the C919, the A320 series has legs, but the the MAX will be the last 737.

Boeing doesn’t have a real business plan unless they have a post-737 plan. Southwest Airlines doesn’t have a business plan until it has a post-737 plan. Nothing lasts forever.

My biggest fear is that Boeing’s core competence is corruption and that they’ll take advantage of the Coronavirus to get a bailout that never ends. It will protect jobs in the beginning, but the story of the US steel industry shows that protecting a company that refuses to keep up with the technology of competitors ends in tears.

Already in the last 20 years we have seen Canada and Brazil pull ahead of the EU and USA to develop new planes like the E195 and A220. You won’t believe it until you fly it, but both new planes are smaller than the 737 on the outside but feel bigger on the inside. If the 737 gets squeezed by that class of plane on one side and small widebodies, wouldn’t that be for the best?

By: LB

LB — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 22:47:52 +0000

As a company Boeing is broken. Their previous CEO pushed profits over all else. Of course it makes sense to “modernize” the 757 and cease development of the 737. Had he selected that route, Boeing would have a plane in each class today.

By: Hans Averdung

Hans Averdung — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 15:28:37 +0000

When bean counters manage an aerospace company, you get the 737 MAX and the CST-100 Starloser (sorry, Starliner).

When bean counters manage a pharma company, you get Vioxx.

When bean counters manage a car company, you get the Chrysler K-car.

When bean counters manage a consultancy, you get Arthur Andersen, aka the Royal House of Fraud (now Accenture, or Ass-Venture as it is better known).

When bean counters manage a space agency, you get a kludge “Shuttle” instead of a spaceplane atop a Saturn first stage, like it should have been, and 14 dead astronauts.

When bean counters manage armed forces, you get the M2 Bradley and the “multi-role” kludges named F-4, F-111 and F-35

Shakespeare got it wrong in “Henry VI”. First thing to do is kill all the accountants.