B737 fyller 50 - Stort fødselsdagsselskap ved Museum of Flight - Seattle - AVweb

Det er et par ting å si om dette: Dersom du ikke har vært i Seattle før, så kan jeg garantere et hyggelig bekjentskap. Museum of Flight var under utbygging da jeg var der i 2011, men jeg ser og leser at det har blitt et flott anlegg sentrert rundt den orginale fabrikken til Boeing, "The Red Barn". Sjekk bildet under (Red)

Big Birthday Celebration For Baby Boeing

By Geoff Rapoport

The Museum of Flight in Seattle is hosting a 50thbirthday party for the littlest Boeing commercial airplane, the 737, on April 9. Brien Wygle, pilot-in-command for the maiden flight, is expected to attend, along with 737 engineers Bob Bogash and Peter Morton and Boeing historian Mike Lombardi. Bob Bogash was also Crew Chief for the restoration of the original aircraft, registered as N73700, which is a permanent exhibit at the Museum of Flight. Boeing will be providing a new 737 MAX for viewing during the celebration, which is scheduled to take off at 1:15 p.m., 50 years to the minute from N73700’s maiden flight. N73700 remained a Boeing test aircraft until 1973 when it was sold to NASA. NASA re-registered the airplane as N515NA and operated it as a flying laboratory until 1997. It was returned to its birthplace at Boeing Field in September 2003. The party, featuring cake, a giant birthday card and panel discussion, will be noon to 4 p.m. (reception from 2 p.m.-4 p.m.) and is open to the all museum visitors. Fifty years after its introduction, the 737 product line is thriving. Boeing reports that it has delivered over 9,400 of the single-aisle airplanes with orders for another 4,400. The original 737-100 was only 94 feet long with a maximum takeoff weight of 110,000 pounds and a range of only 1,540 NM. The new 737 MAX 9, the first of which rolled off the assembly line earlier this month, is 138 feet long and is expected to be certificated with a maximum takeoff weight of 194,700 pounds with a range of over 3,500 NM. Visually, the older 737s are easily distinguished from their modern successors by their small-diameter, low-bypass turbofan engines. The 737 was the first jet airliner over 80,000 pounds certified to be operated by a two-pilot crew—no flight engineer—much the dismay of the Air Line Pilots Association, which successfully insisted that it be flown by a three-pilot crew for several years after a failed lobbying attempt to prevent certification for two-pilot operations. Photo Credits: 737 Advertisement by Boeing; N515NA by Robert Bogash; 737 MAX 8 by Boeing UPDATE: A previous version of this article stated incorrectly the 737 was the first jet airliner certified for a two-pilot crew. The BAC-111 and DC-9 flew before the 737 as two-pilot aircraft. Those airplanes both had maximum gross takeoff weights of less than 80,000 pounds, then the FAA's threshold for two-pilot crew aircraft.