10,000 and counting: the most successful jet aircraft of all time
The most successful commercial jet of all time? You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s the 747. The jumbo has been an icon of the sky for almost 50 years, and during that time more than 1,500 have been delivered to airlines around the world.
But that pales in comparison to its smaller, less fêted sibling – the 737. The first one entered service with Lufthansa in February 1968, only two years before the jumbo took to the air with Pan Am. Last week the 10,000th 737 left Boeing’s factory in Everett, Washington.
How does that compare with other top selling passenger jets? The only model that comes close to rivalling the 737 is the Airbus A320 family, which includes the A318, A319 and A321. It entered service in 1988 with Air France; since then just over 8,000 have been delivered.
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But the 737 was initially a flop
The staggering success of the 737 was not predicted back in 1967, when it was first unveiled to the world. Sales were sluggish to say the least. “At the time of its birth, we were struggling to attract airlines at all,” Brien Wygle, the pilot of its inaugural flight, now 93, told the Seattle Times. “I don’t think anybody could have foreseen the extreme success of the airplane in the long run.”
The launch customer, Lufthansa, was the only carrier to buy a significant number of the original 737-100, which had room for 100 passengers (up from the 60 to 85 originally envisaged), while a grand total of just 30 were delivered. An inauspicious start.
A longer version, the 737-200, entered service with United Airlines in April 1968 and was a bigger hit (105 were delivered in 1968 and 114 in 1969), but after a few years sales began to wane. Only 22 were shipped in 1972, and just 23 left the factory the year after, raising doubts about the model’s future. Boeing considered closing the production line and flogging the design to Japanese manufacturers. The US Air Force helped to save it with an order for 19 modified 737-200s, known as T-43s, and the aircraft limped on.
Where are the “Original 737s” now?
According to the website Airfleets.net, there are no active 737-100s. The very first one can be seen at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, however.
Planespotters would do well to spot a 737-200. A few are still in the sky, including FAP 353, which began life in 1969 with Aer Lingus and is now in the hands of the Peruvian Air Force (via Air Algerie, Cameroon Airlines, Zambia Airways, Euralair Horizons, IAL, Cayman Airways, Sultan Air, Albatros Airlines and TANS). Commercial airlines using those early models include EasySky Airlines (Honduras), Chilean Airways, Air Inuit (Canada), Transafrican Air (Kenya) and RUTACA (Venezuela).
The oldest 737 in service | Around the world with FAP 353
The turning point
The first major revision of the 737 came in the early Eighties. The 737-300 had better fuel economy, produced less noise, and carried 149 passengers. It first flew in 1984 and sold far more quickly than its predecessors, with 252 orders received in 1985 alone. Convincing airlines to purchase the model, and part with millions of pounds, wasn’t easy, however, and involved some epic round-the-world sales flights. Bob Bogash, 73, a former Boeing engineer, recalled one gruelling journey in 1984 that featured visits to 19 countries (including Iceland, Zimbabwe and Venezuela) in 27 days. “You never stayed in one spot. You had nowhere to do your laundry. In half these places, you couldn’t drink the water. You brushed your teeth with Chivas Regal,” he told the Seattle Times. “But you can sell a lot of airplanes that way.”
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The hard work paid off. More than 100 737s were delivered every year from 1985 until 1994, and more than 1,000 737-300s were produced until 1999, when Air New Zealand received the final one.
Another variant, the 737-400 was launched by the now defunct Piedmont Airlines (based in North Carolina, not Italy) in 1988, while the 737-500 entered service in 1990 with Southwest Airlines. These three versions have since been dubbed the “Classic 737s”, and they secured the future of the model. Many of these aircraft are still flying, and while most are possessed by niche airlines and cargo companies, a few are operated by European carriers. UK’s Jet2, for example, has 18 737-300s in its locker, the oldest of which, G-CELH, entered service in 1986 (making it almost as old as this reporter).
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Why is the 737 still so successful?
The first 737 had room for 100 passengers and a range of just 1,150 miles (about the distance from London to Seville). “Next Generation” 737s, which encompasses the 737-600, 700, 800 and 900, carry almost twice that number, and are capable of flying around twice as far.
The model’s middle of the road capacity and range, coupled with its efficiency and reliability, as well as its single aisle - perfect for speedy service and quick turnarounds - make it perfectly suited to low-cost carriers. The rapid rise of the no-frills airline in the late Eighties and Nineties coincided with some staggering sales of the 737 - more than 200 were produced in both 1991 and 1992 - and it hasn’t looked back.
The first 737-700 was handed to Southwest Airlines in 1998. The US airline is the world’s largest low-cost carrier, with a fleet of 712 aircraft – all of which are 737s.
Southwest directly inspired Europe’s biggest low-cost airline, Ryanair. “We went to look at Southwest Airlines in the US,” Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary recalled. “It was like the road to Damascus. This was the way to make Ryanair work. I met with Herb Kelleher [its former CEO]. I passed out about midnight, and when I woke up again at about 3am Kelleher was still there, the *******, pouring himself another bourbon. I thought I'd pick his brains and come away with the Holy Grail. The next day I couldn't remember a thing.” Ryanair now has a fleet of 420 aircraft – all of which are 737s.
The model also has a remarkably good safety record. The fatal accident rate for the early 737s (100s and 200s) was 0.89 for every million departures; that fell to 0.25 for the “Classic” versions; and 0.09 for the “Next Generations”. These rates compare favourably with other aircraft. The Airbus A310, for example, a contemporary of the Classic 737, has a fatal accident rate of 1.85 per million departures. The A330 and the Boeing 777, contemporaries of the Next Generation 737s, have fatal accident rates of 0.21 and 0.2, respectively.
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Tom Farrier, a US aviation expert, writing on the website Quora, further explained the model’s appeal: “The 737 embodies a number of properties that different users like. It can be internally configured in a variety of ways, from single class to two-class seating to mixed passenger/cargo arrangements, and even as a private jet [the Boeing Business Jet]. The Next Generation models have extended range capabilities, with some capable of intercontinental operations. They’re good at getting into and out of airports served by runways somewhat shorter than the norm. They’re also relatively quiet inside. I’d expect the basic design to continue to be tweaked for many years to come, but that it will remain pretty much the standard for basic single-aisle, twin-engine, medium-range airliners for the foreseeable future.”
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The 737s of the future
The 737 MAX is the successor to the Next Generation. It entered service in 2017 with Malindo Air, based in Malaysia, and is being snapped up by low-cost carriers around the world at an incredible rate. A total of 80 have been delivered, but more than 4,300 orders have been received, including 251 from Flydubai, 240 from Southwest, 201 from Lion Air, 142 from SpiceJet, and 110 from both Norwegian and Ryanair.
At a glance | Who has ordered the 737 MAX?
What can passengers expect? Quieter and more efficient than its ancestors, the 737 MAX has been described as a “game changer” – the short-haul plane of the future. They have larger overhead bins too. Boeing’s fancy Space Bins come as standard on the new model. They are designed to provide 50 per cent more storage space, holding up to six standard size cabin bags – two more than Boeing’s ubiquitous Sky Interior pivot bins.
But a few issues have already been identified too. The lavatories are ludicrously small – with sinks so tiny that passengers can only wash one hand at a time. That’s according to flight attendants at American Airlines, who met with senior management in January to outline their grievances about the new aircraft’s WCs. Namely that those attempting to use the undersized sinks risk having their clothes doused with water, while the rear of the plane is so cramped that when the doors of the two hindmost loos are opened, cabin crew are sealed off in the galley and unable to reach passengers.
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The plane that’s even more popular than the 737
With 10,000 produced, and orders for almost 5,000 outstanding, the 737 has no rivals. Unless you consider private aircraft. The humble Cessna 172 Skyhawk first flew in 1955 – 63 years later more than 44,000 have been built, sold and shipped to clients across the globe.
Not airlines, of course. The 172 will fly for 800 miles on a full tank (about the distance from London to Venice), travelling at a stately maximum velocity of 150mph, and is the aircraft of choice for countless student pilots. Thousands of young aviators have taken their shaky first steps at the helm of a 172, and the United States Air Force and Army use a variant of the model to train new recruits.
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Why is it so successful? Because it couldn’t be much easier to fly and land, making it the perfect training plane. The wings sit high above the cockpit, giving pilots a good view of the ground, and so simple, clean and robust is the design, it has been dubbed the “land-o-matic”. It has always been relatively affordable too, with a new 172 today priced at around ￡225,000. A second-hand 172 might cost just ￡25,000.