Wingspan: Did you know?

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 12/07/2017 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan

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707, 727, 737, 747, 767, 777, 787. Even for people who aren’t crazy about airplanes, those numbers are instantly recognizable as types of Boeing commercial airliners. But why did Boeing adopt that numbering system?

Ever since the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Boeing, along with most aircraft manufactures, used sequential numbers to identify their aircraft (military aircraft received separate designations). At the end of WWII, Boeing was mainly a builder of military aircraft, but the company knew they would soon be diversifying into commercial aviation, missiles and even spacecraft. They needed a system that would easily identify their products and what they were made for. So they started using numbered sets of 100 to differentiate their endeavors: 300 and 400 was used for aircraft, 500 for turbine engines, 600 for rockets and missiles, and 700 for commercial airliners.

A Boeing KC-135A, known to Boeing as the Model 717, refuels a Boeing B-52D Stratofortress (US Air Force)

When Boeing developed the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , better known as the Dash-80, as an aerial tanker for the US Air Force, they knew that it would be spun off into a commercial airliner. Since “Model 700” didn’t have much of a ring to it, they went with the catchier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Air Force tanker, which was known in military parlance as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , received the internal Boeing designation 717.

It only made sense, then, that the next airliner would be the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . That designation went to the trijet derived from the 707, and was followed by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which went on to become the most popular airliner in the world. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! jumbo jet was the world’s first wide body, and was followed by the narrow-body !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , wide-body !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and globe-spanning !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Boeing made the world’s first foray into composite construction with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and currently has a new clean-sheet aircraft in the works which will !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! be called the 797 intended to target the so-called “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ,” airliners sized between the 737 and larger wide-bodies.

Since 717 was used as the designation for the KC-135, it never made it onto a commercial airliner until Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. At that time, the McDonnell Douglas MD-95, a derivative of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! series, was rebranded the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and entered service in 1999. The only other time Boeing didn’t use the palindromic numbering system was with the 707-020, a high-performance, short-range version of the 707 which was built in relatively small numbers and was branded as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

So what happens after Boeing builds the 797? Back in the 1960s, the company started work on a supersonic transport that would have been known as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . While that aircraft never progressed beyond the mock-up stage, that may provide a clue on what Boeing’s plans are for the future of the commercial airliner, and the future of their numbering system.

Boeing 737-7Q8 of Southwest Airlines (Photo by the author)

British Airways Boeing 747-436 (Photo by the author)

Delta Airlines Boeing 757 (Photo by the author)

American Airlines Boeing 777-223ER (Photo by the author)

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If you enjoyed this post, please join in the conversation and let me know. For more posts about airplanes, aviation history and aircraft oddities, set your course for   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > ttyymmnn 12/07/2017 at 12:45

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What is crazy to me:

727: 1962-1984, 1832 produced

757: 1981-2004, 1050 produced

767: 1981-current, 1103 produced

777: 1993-current, 1520 produced

but the 737? 1966, yes, 1966!-current, 9753 produced

Talk about a plane that somehow nailed it. Even though it’s had a ton of updates, something about that size and form just seems to be goldilocks. And as of October, they still have 4,430 orders for more 737s on the books.

Ash78, voting early and often > ttyymmnn 12/07/2017 at 12:47

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tl;dr — Ferrari will find a way to sue them either way.

jimz > ttyymmnn 12/07/2017 at 12:50

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Maybe they go to 4 digits e.g. 7007.

Or use letters like they do for development project codes; IIRC the 787 was “7E7.”

jimz > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. 12/07/2017 at 13:02

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yeah, it is interesting how it outlasted the 757. I guess 130-160 seats is the sweet spot for most domestic flights. While it was admittedly in the pre-9/11 days, there were a couple times I flew on nearly-empty 757s.

user314 > ttyymmnn 12/07/2017 at 13:17

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I think I like these types of articles better than the ‘This Date in...’, if only because you can get into greater depth on the subject. Still, please keep doing everything!

Dear God,those J57 (JT3C) engines! Pretty much just a straight pipe, aren’t they?

e36Jeff now drives a ZHP > jimz 12/07/2017 at 13:27

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They can just claim they’ve been counting in hex the whole time. That buys them 6 extra iterations.

ttyymmnn > jimz 12/07/2017 at 15:36

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IIRC, it was the 7E7 while it was in development. Whether or not they planned to call it the 787 all along, I don’t know.

ttyymmnn > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. 12/07/2017 at 15:42

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ICYMI: http://oppositelock.kinja.com/planelopnik-did-you-know-1818812370