Boeing 737
* The popularity of the 737 can be traced in large part to its use by
Southwest Airlines, which has been a launch customer on the -300, -500, and -700 variants, and uses no other aircraft type, and accounts for over 9% of the delivered fleet.
* The Boeing 737s has several nicknames:
** The first 737s were nicknamed, "The Baby Boeing" because it looked like a baby 707 to many pilots.
** An additional early nickname was "Fat Albert" since it was the airplane was only a foot longer in length than the wing span.
** The 737 has also been nicknamed the "flying football" due its resemblance to the shape of a football.
** At
United Airlines the 737 is nicknamed "Guppy".
* Engines on the 737 Classic series (300,400,500) and Next-Generation series (600, 700, 800, 900) do not have circular inlets, as most aircraft do. Engineers needed additional space to locate equipment on the more powerful engines, but because the 737 sits lower to the ground than most aircraft, the enlarged engine would sit too close to the ground. Instead, the engineers placed equipment on the engine's sides, giving the engine a pronounced triangular shape. Boeing and CFM International, the engine manufacturer, claim that the triangular shape actually yields slightly improved performance. The necessary nacelle redesign is known in the industry as "hamsterisation", because of the resemblance of the shape to the popular domesticated rodent.
* The 737 uses the same basic fuselage as the 707, 727 and 757.
* Most 737 cockpits are equipped with "eyebrow windows" positioned above the main glareshield. Eyebrow windows were a feature of the original 707. They allowed for greater visibility in turns, and offered better sky views if navigating by stars. With modern avionics, they became redundant, and many pilots actually placed newspapers or other objects in them to block out sun glare. They were eliminated from the 737 cockpit design in 2004.
* The fuselage of the 737 can actually fit inside the engine nacelle of the
GE90-115B turbo-fan jet engine. The GE90-115B is used to power the Boeing 777-200LR and 777-300ER.
* The 737 has no main landing gear doors. The main landing gear (under the wings at mid-cabin), rotate into wells in the plane's belly, and seals activate to aerodynamically smooth (or "fair") the wheels in the wells. The sides of the tires are exposed to the air in flight. When observing a 737 take off, or at low altitude, the dark circles of the tires can be plainly seen. Boeing states that this design saves weight and reduces complexity.
* With the number of 737s in use, it is estimated that one 737 takes-off every 5 seconds somewhere in the world.
* 737s are not equipped with
fuel dump systems. Depending upon the nature of the emergency, 737s either circle to burn-off fuel or land overweight, .
Recent accidents
*
January 3,
2004 -
Flash Airlines,
Flight 604, a 737-300 crashed shortly after take-off from
Sharm el-Sheikh,
Egypt killing all 148 passengers and crew. [
1]
*
February 3,
2005 -
Kam Air,
Flight 904, a 737-200 crashed into a mountain 20 miles (30 km) east of
Kabul,
Afghanistan killing all 96 passengers and eight crew. [
2]
*
August 14,
2005 -
Helios Airways,
Flight 522, a 737-300 crashed after cabin decompression and crew loss of consciousness, north of
Athens, killing all 118 passengers and crew.
*
August 23,
2005 -
TANS Peru,
Flight 204, a 737-200 crashed during a storm in the
Peruvian jungle, killing 40 of the 92 passengers and six crew. [
3]
*
September 5,
2005 -
Mandala Airlines,
Flight 091, a 737-200 crashed in
Medan,
Indonesia, killing 102 of the 117 passengers and crew, plus 47 more on the ground. [
4]
*
October 22,
2005 -
Bellview Airlines,
Flight 210, a 737-200 crashed shortly after take-off from
Lagos,
Nigeria, killing all 111 passengers and six crew. [
5]
*
December 8,
2005 -
Southwest Airlines,
Flight 1248, a 737-700 slid off the runway during a heavy snowstorm landing on runway 31C (length 6,500 - available to land distance of 5,826) at Chicago's Midway Airport and into a nearby intersection, hitting two cars killing 1 car passenger and injuring eleven other people, including three jet passengers.[
6]
Accidents summary
Statistics as of
December 12,
2005:
*
Hull-loss Accidents: 114 with a total of 3182 fatalities
*Other occurrences: 6 with a total of 242 fatalities
*Hijackings: 96 with a total of 325 fatalities
Source: Aviation Safety Network*
Flight International coverage on 5000th 737*
Boeing 737 Technical Information*
Aircraft-Info.net - Boeing 737-400*
Planemad.net - Boeing 737 all versions Production Lists*
The Boeing 737 Management Reference Guide (for B737 airline pilots)*
Official Boeing page*
List of 737NG operators*
Boeing 737NG Flight Tutorial for FS2004*
How to start a real Boeing 737 Tutorial*
Boeing 737 image pool on flickr
