Summary The Boeing 737-900 was expected to compete with the Airbus A321 but fell short. Aircraft history of the Boeing 737-900 is devoid of major crashes- 0 hull-losses. 52 Boeing 737-900s were produced, but only 38 remain active.
The Boeing 737-900 is an aircraft whose history stretches back six decades. After all, it is a variant of the original Boeing 737 that was envisioned in the sixties. After the first 737 rolled out on January 17, 1967, it underwent many variations, leading up to Boeing's Next Generation (NG) variants .
The longest of the 737NG family is the Boeing 737-900. Let's delve into five facts about this longest aircraft in its family. The Boeing 737 family first flew over 50 years ago.
5 Developed in order to compete with the Airbus A321 Didn't really compete well, though The Boeing 737-900 was developed in order to compete with the Airbus A321 . The Airbus A321 entered service in 1993, while the Boeing 737-900 came eight years later. Both these narrowbody aircraft can accommodate over 180 passengers (depending upon the layout).
Let's take a look at a few characteristics of the two aircraft ( according to data from www.flugzeuginfo.net ) in detail: Aircraft Engine Power Passengers Range Maximum Operating Speed Boeing 737-900 27,300 lbs each 177-189 3,683 miles Mach 0.
82 Airbus A321 32,000 lbs each 185-220 3,480 miles Mach 0.82 Although the 737-900 has a greater range, the A321 has greater engine power. Also, the A321 can occupy a greater number of passengers.
Some critics have argued that since Boeing rolled out the concept of the 737 in the 1960s, a variant of an aircraft envisioned so long ago wouldn't be able to compete with the A321. According to Aviator Insider , the A321 is far superior to the 737-900: "The Airbus A321 has outperformed comparable 737 variants well before the MAX crisis hit, according to data from Cirium. The A321-200 and A321neo variants outperformed the 737-900, 900ER, MAX 8, and MAX 9 in the last decade.
Starting in 2021, Boeing began closing the gap by fulfilling its 737 MAX 8 order backlog, but it is unlikely that the 737 will ever catch up to the A321 again." 4 Alaska Airlines - the launch customer Flew first shortly after the turn of the millenium The first carrier to take delivery of the Boeing 737-900 was Alaska Airlines . The first flight of Alaska Airline's Boeing 737-900 came when the pilots of this carrier flew the aircraft from the Boeing Delivery Center at Boeing Field in Seattle to the company's hangar at Sea-Tac International Airport.
The flight had a group of leaders of the carrier on board. On the occasion, the then-president of Alaska Airlines, Ben Minicucci, was buoyant with the delivery, reported aviationpros.com : "We've eagerly waited for this day.
It was a proud moment to board our newest 737 aircraft and fly it home. This plane is a significant part of our future. We believe in it, we believe in Boeing, and we believe in our employees who will spend the next five weeks in training to ensure we're ready to safely fly our guests.
" The aircraft entered commercial service on March 1 as flights took off from the following locations Seattle to San Diego (and back) Seattle to Los Angeles (and back) 3 It has a history that is devoid of major accidents No passengers have ever lost their lives on this aircraft An analysis of air accidents between 1959 and 2017 conducted by Boeing revealed that airplane accidents revealed that the Boeing Next Generation series had a hull loss rate of 0.17 per million departures. This was a remarkable improvement from the hull loss rate of 0.
71 per million departures for the classic series and 1.75 for the original series. The deadliest accident involving a 737NG was Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752.
The aircraft taking the flight, the Boeing 737-800, was shot down after takeoff. This was later dubbed to be an act of terrorism . The 737-900 has a relatively safe history as it is devoid of any major air crash accidents.
Here's a look at the impressive statistics of the 737-900, according to Aviation Safety Network : Type Count Hull-losses (accidents) 0 Highjackings 0 Criminal occurrences (hull-losses, excl. hijackings) 0 One of the major among the minor incidents involving the 737-900 was flight LY326 taking off from Paris (CDG) to Tel Aviv. As the aircraft readied itself for taxiing, an announcement of an under-floor hold fire came forth .
2 An underwhelming number of deliveries 52 produced and only 38 are active The sales of the Boeing 737-900 barely exceeded fifty. Alaska Airlines, the airline that took the first order for the Boeing 737-900, is the largest operator of this aircraft. Let's take a look at airlines operating the 737-900 in the table below: Airlines Number of Boeing 737-900s Alaska Airlines 11 Korean Air 10 United Airlines 10 Jin Air 2 KLM 5 There were a few reasons behind why only such a limited number of carriers operated the Boeing 737-900.
One of them was its limited seating capacity. Compared to the next largest aircraft in the NG family, the longer fuselage of the 737-900 had : Nine percent more cabin floor space Eighteen percent more cargo space According to an analysis done by Justin Foster for Simple Flying , the use of the same emergency exits as the previous variants of the NG family might have led to a limited number of seats, despite an increased space in the 737-900: "..
when Boeing developed the aircraft, the company opted to use the same emergency exit layouts . This layout included four main exit doors and four overwing exit doors. Because of this, the passenger capacity was restricted to a maximum of 189 passengers, which was very similar to the capacity of the -800.
The -900 variant also retained the same fuel capacity and maximum takeoff weight as the -800, meaning it traded range for its increased size." 1 Its stretched variant saw ten times the order More than five hundred 737-900 ERs have been delivered In order to make up for the deficiencies in the 737-900, Boeing came up with the Boeing 737-900ER, which had extra emergency exits just aft of the wing. Some of the other changes in the ER version of the 737-900 include : Two new auxiliary fuel tanks A flat aft pressure bulkhead to increase the interior cabin size An increased capacity to accommodate up to 220 passengers, matching the A321-200 In his book Boeing 737: The World's Most Controversial Commercial Jetliner , the author Graham M Simons wrote about the modifications on the ER variant: "Range was increased to 3,200 nautical miles with the addition of two 1,970 liter [520 gallons] auxiliary fuel tanks, or 2,800 nautical miles without optional winglets.
The 900ER had reinforced landing gear legs, wing-box, and keel beam structure to handle the increased Maximum Take-Off-Weight of 187,700 pounds." The Boeing 737-900ER proved to be way more popular than the aircraft it was designed out of, as more than five hundred Boeing 737-900 ERs have been delivered to date..
