Boeing Hopes For Jubilee Prize

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30983, 12 February 1966, Page 17

Boeing Hopes For Jubilee Prize

[By a staff reporter of “The Press” who recently visited the Boeing Company works near

The American Boeing Company seems to be relying just a little—on sentiment in its efforts to sell its 737 short-haul jet to the National Airways Corporation.

Boeing claims old ties with New Zealand. The first two aircraft ever made by the company’s founder were sold to this country. They were twin-float sport seaplanes built at Seattle in 1916 by William E. Boeing and Conrad Westervelt. The B and Ws, as the seaplanes were called, were built by carpenters, shipwrights, cabinet makers and seamstresses out of such mundane materials as spruce timber, steel wire, and linen fabric, but they established Boeing in the aircraft business. The New Zealand Government bought them for pilot training and for the first experimental air-mail flights. No Boeing aircraft has been bought by New Zealand since then, and the company thinks the sale of a couple of 737 jets now would be a fitting event for its jubilee year. Built First Jet

Boeing built the first jet airliner ever made and has sold so many since that a Boeing is said to take off and land somewhere in the would every 14 seconds of the day and night. The 737 itself is the Johnny-come-lately of the three competing short-haul jets. The first 737 will not fly until November this year and they will not be in service until late in 1967. Its competitors, the B.A.C. 1-11 and the Douglas DC-9, are already being used by airlines all over the world.

However, Boeing claims that its aircraft is all the better for starting late. If it had

been begun at the same time as the other two, it would have looked like them, with jet engines on the tail. Instead, the 737 has benefited from the technology of the short-range rear-engined Boeing 727. Engines on Wings

The 737 will have its two engines on the wings, which the company says has the advantages of lighter installation, lower maintenance costs (because of easier access and less ingestion of rocks and debris by the engines) better stall characteristics, better evacuation through having a rear door, and optimum balance.

Boeing has changed its ideas about the conventional “fineness” ratio of fuselage width to aircraft length. Consequently, the 737 is fatter than usual, and has six-abreast seating instead of the fiveabreast seating of its two competitors. The extra row of seats the length of the aircraft is calculating to boost revenue by 17 per cent. One of the selling points used by the makers, of the tail-engine jets is that all the noise is left behind. But Boeing savs that passengers in the back of the tail-engine jet are still subiected to a high noise level. The 737, the company says, will really leave its engine noise behind because the noise cone from the wing-mounted engines will miss the fuselage of the short aircraft altogether. Prices Similar

There is not much to choose in the price of the three competing aircraft. The B.A.C. 1-11 is said to cost £l.2m, the Boeing 737 £l.2m, and the DC9 £1.17m. The N.A.C. is reported to have recommended purchase of the Boeing 737 s to the Government, although it has not even been built yet, whereas B.A.C. has sold more than 100 of its 1-lls and Douglas has sold 230 DC9s. The 737 will come in two passenger versions—the 737100 seating up to 99 pas-

sengers and the 737-200 seating up to 113 passengers. There will also be a convertible passenger-cargo version, which will be available with “quick-change” facilities enabling it to be converted from one use to the other within half an hour.

Users of the Boeing 727 have proved that this change can be made in less than 20 minutes with that aircraft. Seats and galleys are on pallets which run in ball-bearing races and can be simply rolled out the door. This enables an airline to make better use of its aircraft, carrying passengers during the day and cargo at night. Boeing considers this quickchange facility in its jets will be a significant factor in developing air cargo routes.

Orders For 737

At the end of January, Boeing had orders for 36 of the

99-passenger 737 s from five airlines, and for 57 of the 113passenger version from three airlines. The big American domestic airline. United, has ordered 40 737 s and the German international airline Lufthansa has ordered 21. The N.A.C. wants shorthaul jets as replacements for its four Viscount turbo-prop aircraft, and is expected to buy three at first for the main trunk route.

The Government has not yet announced its decision on the corporation’s recommendation, and meanwhile the publicity campaign among the competitors is warming up. It could be significant, however, that the chief of Boeing’s parts division flew to Wellington during last week-end at N.A.C.’s invitation to discuss the availability and supply of spare parts for the Boeing 737.