In the early 1960s, there was competition among BAC 1-11, DC-9 and Fokker F28 in the narrow-body passenger aircraft market, and the sales were good. On May 11th, 1964, Boeing started the research and development of new aircraft, and planned to launch a passenger plane with 50-60 passengers and a range of 50-1,000 miles. The design name of this passenger plane is Boeing 737. At that time, there were three major airlines in the market that had not ordered short-haul passenger planes, namely Eastern Airlines, United Airlines and Lufthansa. Since China Eastern Airlines has ordered DC-9, Lufthansa requires Boeing to develop the 737, otherwise it will order DC-9. So on February 19th, 1965, after ordering 21 737s from Lufthansa, it was Boeing that began to develop 737s. At Lufthansa's insistence, Boeing decided to increase the capacity of 737 to 100 passengers. On April 5, 1965, Boeing announced that it had received an order for 40 aircraft from United Airlines. United Airlines wanted the plane to be a little longer, so Boeing decided to extend the fuselage by 1.93 meters to become a 737-200, while the shorter model was a 737-100.
The first Boeing 737-100 made its first flight in 1967 and was put into service in February 1968. Model 737-200 was also put into service in April of the same year. In the 1980s, Boeing began to develop the 737 "classic" -300, -400 and -500. Boeing 737 Classic not only increases the passenger capacity, but also uses more advanced CFM56 turbofan engine and other equipment. In the 1990s, Boeing Company began to develop the 737 "New Generation", and the improvement measures included redesigned wings, advanced driving equipment and brand-new cabins. The new generation of Boeing 737 has seven models: -600, -700, -700C, -700ER, -800, -900 and -900ER, and has a commercial model BBJ. Boeing 737 is the best-selling passenger plane in the history of civil aviation. Since 1967, it has produced more than 10,030 aircraft, and there are still more than 4,673 orders waiting to be delivered. The main production line is Boeing Renton Factory in Washington State. Many airlines order 737 to replace the old 707, 727, 757, DC-9 and MD-80/90. At present, the main competitor is Airbus A320. The success of Boeing 737 can be known from this data: on average, 1,250 Boeing 737s are flying every second, and one is taking off and landing every five seconds. Model evolution of 737: The first generation 737 (the first generation of 737) 737-100 was 28.63 meters long and made its first flight on April 19, 1967. The fuselage cross section and cockpit appearance of 737-100 are the same as those of Boeing 707 and 727, and the Pratt & Whitney JT8D engine is also used, but the post of flight engineer is cancelled. Lufthansa, the largest customer of this model, signed a contract on March 15, 1965 to order at least 21 737-130s, which was upgraded to 24 on February 24, 1967, but reduced to 22 on August 5, 1968. The first 737-100 delivered to Lufthansa began commercial flight in February 1968. Boeing 737 was born in the era of rapid growth of air transport market. Because the passenger capacity of the -200 is 30 more than that of the -100, airlines prefer to choose the -200 with more passengers, so only 30 aircraft were produced, and the last one was delivered to Malaysia-Singapore Airlines in October 1969.
