Flightglobal:

The Boeing 737 has reached an historic milestone with the delivery of the 6,000th aircraft, almost exactly 42 years after the twinjet first took to the air.......

Author: Max Kingsley-Jones

Date: 22 April 2009

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 Boeing recently reached the significant milestone of 6,000 Boeing 737s deliveries, a massive achivement by any standards. But does it get the recognition it deserves? It may not be the sexiest aircraft, but the numbers, the longevity, and the usability say it all. To me it was one of the main reasons for the growth of commercial aviation in the 70s, and with 2,000 more on order, it doesn't show signs of stopping yet, even though our recent 100 Greatest survey, it didn't get in the top 5 civil aircraft?

 

 

 The 737 is shaping up to be the true successor to the DC3

6,000 in Service ? or 6,000 built and delivered ? . With many -100's , 200's and some -300's having gone to the scrap yard plus all those stored aircraft (603) the in service figure is much lower than 6,000.

Should read 6000 built, with around 4800 in service and an order back log of around 2200

Seat1A:

6,000 in Service ? or 6,000 built and delivered ? . With many -100's , 200's and some -300's having gone to the scrap yard plus all those stored aircraft (603) the in service figure is much lower than 6,000.

Even so, it is still a fantastic acheivement. Hats off to Boeing.

 By any metric you choose to use the 737 is probably the most sucessful civil aircraft program in history

 

The DC-3 'success' was the result largely of the availability of  military surplus at the end of the war, thats not to detract from it, just an observation.