Boeing 737 MAX press conference highlights

Boeing today announced the launch of the re-engined 737 and named it the 737 MAX, consisting of the 737 MAX 7, 737 MAX 8 and 737 MAX 9 variants that will burn 10%-12% less fuel than the existing 737 Next-Generation (NG) and burn 4% less fuel than the competing A320neo (new engine option) on a per seat basis.

In highlighting the strong business case of the 737 MAX, Boeing said it has secured 496 commitments from 5 airlines around the world, including 100 from AMR Corporation’s American Airlines (AA) unit announced in July.

Boeing is now looking to make the fan size decision on whether the 66 inches or the 68 inches one “in the next few weeks”.

The artist’s rendering of the 737 MAX 8 features a straightened vertical stabiliser, 787-styled tail cone, a LED auxiliary power unit (APU) light and an elimination of the aft-fuselage joint, as well as flap setting simplification.

Surprisingly, Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) chief executive Jim Albaugh says the 737 MAX will feature fly-by-wire elements, a first for any 737 since the aircraft family’s introduction in 1965.

Aspire Aviation‘s source at the Chicago-based airframer cautions that the 10-12% fuel burn saving figure does not factor in the fuel burn gains derived from any aerodynamic changes, thus a 15% fuel burn saving when compared to the 737NG still cannot be ruled out when the fuel burn reductions brought by aerodynamic changes are included.

The following excepts of Boeing’s press conference are compiled by Aspire Aviation.

Image Courtesy of Boeing

Boeing Vice President Business Development & Strategic Integration Nicole Piasecki
- “The 737 MAX fuel efficiency improvement over the Next-Generation will be 10-12%, we already offer winglets on the plane that we have for the past 10 years, and the fuel burn will be 4% better per seat than the competition.”

- “The 737 Next-Generation today is significantly more reliable than our competition in the A320.”

- “Today 99.7% of the next-generation 737 are ready to take off within 15 minutes of their schedule.”

- “There can only be one leader and this is the MAX in terms of capability, efficiency and reliability.”

Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Jim Albaugh
- “Managing this programme can be a task in itself, and while this is a very low-risk approach to what we’re going to do with this airplane, this has to be managed very, very well and has to take into account all the lessons learned from all the programmes we have done before”.

- “We think that this programme is going to be a terrific one for us, and we think it is going to be a terrific one for the customers and the one that continues the legacy of the 737 which started back in 1965.”

- “We believe very strongly that this is an airplane that is going to allow us not to just maintain market share, but one to allow us to grow our market share.”

- “We’re going to call this 737 MAX, and we are going to designate the airplane the -7, -8 and -9 as opposed to the 737-800 and -900.”

- “We’re going to call it MAX because we think the airplane will provide the MAX efficiency, the MAX capability and also does the maximum job.”

- “The engine that we are going to put on would be a LEAP engine from CFM, right now we’re looking at 2 different sizes: the 68 and the 66 inch fan blade. In either case we remain very confident that this is not going to require a lot of modifications to the gear; certainly with the 66 no modification; and even with the 68 a very low probability to have to touch the front gear.”

- “In terms of our work we have to do on the wing, clearly with the heavier engine you have to do some changes to the wings, some changes to the side-of-body joint and some localised stiffening of the airplane. “

- “What we try to do with our decision on the engine is to maximise what this airplane can do, with a bigger, you get more efficiency because of the bypass ratio but what you’ll find with a bigger fan is you get more weight and you get more drag”.

- “What we’re trying to do is to optimise the design of the airplane and integrate the design of the airplane”.

- “There’re some advantages in the 66 that we like and there’re some advantages in the 68 that we like and we’re doing the final trade right now and we will make the decision in the next several weeks.”

-  “There are lots of things we could do with this airplane, but what we want to do is to limit the scope of work and we’re going to limit the scope of work to things associated with the engines.”

- “We’re going to make this the simplest re-engine as possible.”

- “We’re only going to touch parts of the airplane impacted by the engine and a couple of other clean-ups.”

- “There’re a couple of things more fly-by-wire, but very minimal things, very minimal.”

- “Yes, we will be producing the 737NG well to the end of this decade. In terms of our customers you’re going to do the customers what they want.”

- “One of the things we’ve learned on the 747-8 and the 787 programmes is you want to make sure that any date we quote is a date we can meet.”

- “And I’d rather under-promise than over-promise and we think we have the right amount of contingency in this programme and so I’m very comfortable with the commitment we’ve made, to deliver this airplane by 2017.”

- “We have work to do on the definitive agreement. I also say that 85% of the backlog we have is outside the United States, and I can tell you many of the customers that are referenced this morning are outside the United States.”

- “They are all major carriers, some may just say these are the top airlines in the world that have committed to this airplane.”

- “On the cockpit, some people might say the cockpit is an old one to us a state-of-the-art from a navigation standpoint and from a flight control standpoint, we think it’s what the customers want.”

- “One of the things that we do want to make sure we have with this airplane is compatibility with NG, compatibility with airplanes we’ve already delivered and what our customers have told us is don’t touch the cockpit and our plan is not to do that.”

- “Recertification, obviously, those are some questions we have to work with the FAA our expectation is there’ll be a certification issue that has to do with the re-engine [but] nothing more.”

- “The vast majority of the efficiency that we’re going to see will come from the engine. What you’ll see is CFM taking much of the technology that they applied to the 747 and the 787 engine and including that into the new smaller LEAP engine for the 737.”

- “There’s going to be minimal aerodynamic clean-up there’re a couple of things we’re going to touch but I think it is safe to say the majority of the efficiency you’re going to see is going to come from the engine.”

-  “Obviously we have contracts in place but at the same time we want to make sure our customers are getting what they need. And right now, they need airplanes in the 737NG it is available and it is available in great number through 2017 maybe even longer. I think most of our customers will stay with the NG.”

- “There maybe some in the out years that they may want to take a hard look at the MAX and clearly we’ll sit down and do just that.”

- “In relative to Renton, you know, we’ve studied long and hard the ability to get up to 42 and we’re going to do that in 2014. We’re looking hard can we go even higher than 42.  And we don’t believe the work scope on doing the final assembly of the MAX is going to be measurably different than the work scope for the NG.”

- “But again, we have a team sitting down in figuring out how we might transition to the new airplane and also how might set up a new facility in a different location. So we’ll be looking at all the options.”

- “Obviously our customers have always paid a premium for our airplane over the competition airplane because of it does deliver more efficiency and capability. And we fully expect going forward to have customers that pay some kind of premium for what we’re going to do with the MAX airplane.”

Image Courtesy of Boeing