FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1978
1978 - 0788.PDF
1462 ;**!',, Boeing 767 an FLIGHT International, 13 May 1978 CURRENT internal Boeing planning assumes that the company will not launch the 757 alone, and gives priority to the twinjet 767. The 767-200 will be the first because there is a choice of three proven engines, and because United Airlines is expected to order the aircraft, probably in July. Boeing is planning to certificate and deliver 767-200s in mid-1982. This timetable gives Boeing a reasonable distribution of critical skills, with structural engineers most at a premium. The wing designers will work on the 767/777 first, fol lowed by the 757. The sixty-seventh 767/777 wing model is at present in the tunnel at Boeing Field. At nearly 2,900ft2 the wing is big—bigger than that of the 767's A300B10X rival and bigger even than that of the A300B4. Although United is understood to be querying the 767's wing area, Boeing feels that both the 727 and 737 ran out of wing too early in their development lives and is determined not to under-wing the 767 and 777. "The real 767 is the 200," says market-planning head Thomas R. Craig. "Whether the airlines will choose be tween the 757 and the 767-100 we don't know." Will Boeing go for both? "We don't say never in Boeing, but I'd say at this moment it is unlikely." Another reason why the 767/777 programmes will be launched first, says Boeing director of new product develop ment Lynn Olason, is "because we want to settle the new seven-abreast cross-section. This is a big exposure, and we want to know where we stand." Boeing will do the 777 trijet second to give its cropped- f an powerplants another nine months of development. The US market demand for the 757 will come later, although "British Airways is pressing us to do it first," says Olason. The trijet 777-100 MR (medium-range) with three cropped-fan or JT10D engines and the 777-100 LR (long- Mixed Class Passengers r r 777- to. 00 V » >> range) with similar powerplants are being redesignated 777-100 and the 777-200 respectively. American Airlines wants the 777 trijet for its long-range routes: New York- San Francisco, New York-Barbados and Mexico City- Chicago, for example. "We will surely grow the 767 to be a transcontinental non-stop aircraft," says Olason, noting that the 747 has grown from 710,0001b to 820,0001b so far. Seven-abreast body Why seven-abreast? Basically because a six-abreast fuselage is structurally too long at 180 seats and an eight-abreast fuselage is aerodynamically too short at 200 seats. Seven-abreast caters for from 150 to 250 seats. Boeing has gone for seven-abreast seating, having dropped it some five years ago, after many months of the most exhaustive reappraisal. Among the advantages which Boeing claims are: • Two aisles • 8ft X 8ft main-deck cargo container • One in seven more passengers can have a window seat than in an eight-abreast cabin • Nobody has to occupy the middle of the triple chair up to a load factor of 85 per cent; in practice this middle seat will hardly ever be used • No body-tapering, as in the A300B10, and 210 seats com pared with 199 in the B10 • Seven seats across give seat and aisle widths one inch greater than in the 727. Six-abreast first-class double chairs are claimed to be as roomy as four-abreast in the 727, except that the chair's Left The new Boeings with right die competing Airbus family, actual and proposed, for comparison. Opposite page Typical interior arrangements of the 767-200. Boeing has reverted to the seven-abreast body, claiming for it the advantages set out in the text above 2700 Range (nmi) 300- 250- 200- 150- Is- IV ^-'.-'•rfc YYV- » ""S^sr =s^ B2 B10 SH JET! Y\ -.'.*_ —5>^-^- lllHfc. __ 5> >^ B4 ^5=-^ ^^^ B10 MR 3
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
