FARNBOROUGH: Boeing
details range-boosting 737-7 redesign
14 ULY, 2016 - BY: STEPHEN
TRIMBLE - FARNBOROUGH
Remaking the smallest version of
the 737 Max family to carry more passengers and fly further presents three
options: Shrink the larger 737-8, stretch the smaller 737-7 or combine elements
of both.
In the end, Boeing decided to
stretch the 737-7 by two seat rows and added major elements of the 737-8 in the
first major tweak to the 737 Max line-up more than five years after launching
the programme.
In a sign of the shifting
dynamics in the single-aisle market, the 737-7 has attracted just 60 aircraft
orders from three customers, giving the formerly 126-seat variant less than 2%
of overall backlog for the three-member 737 Max family. The original version of
the aircraft, the 737-300 Classic, outsold two larger sister variants by a wide
margin. Airlines demanded more capacity after the 737NG family was introduced
in 1998, but the 737-700 still claimed a respectable 17% share of the overall
backlog.
If there is good news for the
737-7 backlog, it is that Boeing’s primary competitors have not done much
better at the small end of the single-aisle market segment. Bombardier has
gained 247 firm orders for the 135-seat CS300 since 2008, while Airbus picked
up 58 orders for the re-engined A319neo. In an overall market segment from
120-240 seats with more than 8,000 aircraft on backlog, a total orderbook of
465 aircraft on firm order doesn’t appear encouraging.
Boeing does not expect the
addition of up to 12 more seats in a typical two-class seating configuration to
significantly drive new demand into the low end of the single-aisle sector. The
move appears to be driven by Boeing’s attempt to satisfy new requirements
imposed by the 737-7’s two largest customers: Southwest and WestJet.
“We have now assessed the
market. The customers have said that a bigger airplane is something we would
like with that range,” says Keith Leverkuhn, vice-president and general manager
for the 737.
The redesign also happens to
answer Boeing Business Jets’ long-term search in the VIP market for an answer
to the 7,500nm (13,900km) capability of the Gulfstream G650ER, which dwarfs the
6,100nm range of the 737-700-derived BBJ1. The launch of the BBJ Max 7 at the
Farnborough air show fills that need.
Boeing is well acquainted with
mixing and matching different versions of the 737 to develop new variants. The
737-800ERX, for example, was developed for the US Navy’s P-8A Poseidon,
leveraging a heavily modified version of the 737-800 airframe with the
higher-gauge aluminium wing and strengthened landing gear of the 737-900ER.
P-8 Farnborough 2016 - Foto: Per Gram
The same philosophy was adopted
for the wing of the new 737-7. The 737-7 and 737-8 share the same wingspan, but
the latter has a thicker wing that can carry more fuel. The modified 737-7 wing
will have more fuel capacity to compensate for the greater weight of the
lengthened fuselage and add 500nm more range, says Leverkuhn. The fuselage
itself is lengthened by 1.17m (46in) forward of the wing and 76cm aft of the
wing, he says. The maximum take-off weight rises from 70,300kg (155,000lb) to
nearly 80,300kg, requiring Boeing to use the strengthened landing gear of the
737-8.
In some ways, the stretched
737-7 restores a balance lost with the arrival of the 737NG series in 1998. At
that time, Boeing lengthened the 737-800 by two rows compared to the 737-400,
but left the 737-700 identical in length to the 737-300, says Randy Tinseth,
Boeing’s vice-president of marketing.
As much as airlines have prized
fuel efficiency in new models, extra seats rank as a close runner up. Boeing
officials have even taken the rare step of praising Airbus’s decision to add
exit doors for the A321neo, allowing airlines to seat up to 240 passengers in a
single-class layout. The new 737-7 also follows that example. While the
original 737-300 could accommodate up to 149 in a dense, single-aisle
configuration, the 737-7 will hold more than 170 in the same lay-out, Leverkuhn
says.
The redesign should not throw
the 737 Max programme off schedule. The three variants are still expected to
enter service in annual sequence starting with the 737-8 delivery to Southwest
Airlines in the second quarter of next year. The new 737-7 will appear as
planned in the second quarter of 2019, with the 737-9 coming in between.
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