AviationOutlook The Boeing 737 series aircraft is a medium- and short-range twin-engine passenger jet produced by Boeing. It has been sold for 50 years since its development and has become one of the most successful narrow-body civil airliner series in the history of civil aviation
Manufacturer: Boeing
Country: United States
First Flight: April 9, 1967
Status: In Service
Produced: 1966–present
The Boeing 737 is mainly aimed at the needs of short- and medium-range routes. It is reliable, simple, extremely economical in terms of operation and maintenance costs. Since 1967, more than 10,000 737s have been produced, and there are still thousands of orders waiting to be delivered. Many airlines had initially ordered 737 to replace the old Boeing 707/727, DC-9 and MD-80/90.
Boeing 737 Variants
Boeing 737 is one of the most successful aircraft families for Boeing and has several variants which could be classified into generations as Original Series, Classic, Next Generation and MAX.
Boeing 737 Original Series
The Boeing 737 Original Series included the 737-100 and 737-200s. The 737-100 was launched in February 1965 whereas the 737-200 was launched in June 1967.
The Boeing 737-100s are no longer in commercial service and only 30 of the aircrafts were built. The 737-200 was an improved version with an extended fuselage, more powerful engines, improved aerodynamic features, increased fuel capacity and longer flight range. A total of 1,095 737-200 were built.
Most of the Boeing 737-200s are phased out and less than 50 are in service around the world.
Boeing 737 Classic
This series included the Boeing 737-300, 737-400 and 737-500 series of aircraft. These variants had seating capacity between 145 and 188 seats and were the improved second generation of the 737 series.
The 737 Classic series entered into service in 1984 and came with improved avionic systems, newer high bypass ratio turbofan engines (CFM International CFM56) and increased seating capacity.
A total of 1,988 aircraft were built and around 700 of these aircraft are still in service.
Boeing 737 Next Generation
Also known as the 737NG or 737 Next Gen, this series included the Boeing 737-600, 737-700, 737-800 and 737-900.
Boeing 737 Next Gen was first introduced in December 1997 with Southwest Airlines and had a seating capacity between 110 and 210 passengers.
At the time Boeing felt the increased competition for its 737 Series from Airbus’ A320 family of aircraft which had advanced fly-by-wire system and increased range.
As a result, Boeing upgraded its earlier versions of 737 series into the 737 Next Gen with new wing design, increased flight range, fuel-efficient engines and more seating capacity.
A total of 7,097 Boeing 737 Next Gen aircraft have been built as of May 2019 and around 6,343 of them are still in service.
Boeing 737 MAX
Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of 737 Series and was first introduced in May 2017 with Malindo Air. The 737 MAX variants include 737 MAX 7, MAX 8, MAX 9, MAX 10, and MAX 200.
737 MAX was developed as the more fuel efficient narrow-body airliner which had efficient CFM International LEAP-1B engines, split-tip winglets with increased aerodynamic performance, and longer flight range.
However, after the two fatal accidents involving 737 MAX 8 aircraft in October 2018 and March 2019, the 737 MAX lineup in under a lot of scrutiny.
