Developed in 1960s
- Take advantage of existing 707/727 tooling
- Started life as a derivative design
- Market was envisioned as one of unimproved airfields / developing countries
- This drove single greatest architectural constraint: 737 sits very low to the ground to make loading passengers and luggage easy
Expansion of model variations has been primarily constrained by distance to the ground- Size of engines
- Length of fuselage
Primary engineering focus since first market has been- Increase passenger capacity w/out raising airplane
- Increase fuel efficiency (larger engines) w/out raising airplane
Does not attract “best and brightest” engineers w/in Boeing. Legacy & “not sexy.”
Largest contributor to Boeing’s profits, by farFor the complete presentation, see:
The Boeing 737 MAX Saga