The
Aircraft
The
737 was born out of Boeing's need to field a competitor in the short-range,
small capacity jetliner market which had been opened up by the BAC
1-11 and the Douglas DC-9.
Boeing was badly behind however when the 737 program was initiated in 1964, as both of these rivals were already into their flight
certification programmes. To speed up the development time, Boeing reused as
much technology from the existing 707
and 727 as possible, most notably
the fuselage. This gave the 737 a critical advantage over the opposition - six
abreast seating compared to the 1-11 and DC-9's five abreast layout, and also
made the 737 cheaper and quicker to design. But the decision also dated the
design, and created problems for future modernisation, which still haunts the
current Next-Generation series to this day.
The
short and stubby appearance of the first 737-100 earned it the nickname among
Boeing engineers as "FLUF", being an acronym for "Fat Little Ugly
Fella" (or whatever), although the industry affectionately called it the
"Baby Boeing".
The
-100 and -200 series are identifiable by their tubular engine nacelles which are
integrated into the wing and project both fore and aft of it. The engines used
on the Original 737 models are Pratt and
Whitney JT8D turbofans. The Originals can also be identified by the
smoothly curving upsweep of the tail fin - the Classics and NG models have a
noticeable "kink" at the base of the fin.
The
first 737 (a 100 series) took its maiden flight April 9, 1967 and
entered service in February 1968 with Lufthansa,
the first foreign airline to launch a new Boeing plane. The 737-200 made its
maiden flight on August 8, 1967.
Lufthansa
was the only customer to purchase the 737-100 from new and only 30 aircraft were
ever produced. The lengthened 737-200 was widely preferred and was produced
until 1988.
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In
the early 1980s the 737 had its
first major facelift. The biggest change was to the CFM International CFM56
engines in place of the JT8Ds. The CFM56 was larger than the previous P&W
unit, so the engine was slung underneath the wing rather than built into it.
This posed a problem as the 737's limited ground clearance (a trait of the 707-derived
fuselage) meant that the bottom surface of the engine nacelle had to be
flattened out. At the same time, the 737 gained a partial glass cockpit from the
757
and 767.
The first 737-300 entered service in 1984.
By
the 1990s, the 737 had lost
ground technologically to the newer Airbus
A320. In 1993, Boeing
initiated the 737-X or Next Generation (NG) programme.
The
Next-Generation 737 encompasses the -600, -700, -800 and -900, and amounted to
what was basically a complete redesign of the 30-year old airliner.
New
wings, and revised engines were the biggest engineering changes, whilst
internally, the 737 was given a hi-tech glass
cockpit with LCD screens
and digital systems heavily inspired by that used on the 777.
An all new interior was designed for the Next-Generation 737, again borrowing
heavily from the 777. The 737NG is almost a new aircraft, sharing very little
with previous 737s, other than fuselage frames. The parts count is down by about
33%, simplifying maintenance greatly.
In
2001, the 737 was stretched one
last time to create the 737-900, which is in fact longer and carries more
passengers than the 707. However,
with Boeing's decision to end 757
production at the end of 2004,
there are now plans to create an even higher-capacity 737 to fill the vacuum
left by the 757's demise. The so-called 737-900X is still at the planning stage,
differing from the standard 737-900 by increasing the number of exit doors,
which allows more passengers per widespread safety standards.
Today,
the 737 remains the most popular jetliner in the world. Part of its success is
down to its popularity among low cost
carriers from all over the world.
Variants
There
have been three basic generations of the 737, known as the Original, Classic and
Next-Generation (NG) models.
Original
the 737-100 and -200 (Produced from 1967 - 1988)
Classic
the 737-300, -400, and -500 (Produced from 1983 - 1997)
Next-Generation
(or 737NG)
the 737-600, -700, -800, and -900 (Produced from 1997-)
Some
versions in different generations correspond to each other in size. These are:
737-100
Smallest, original layout
737-200
Extended version of the -100 in order to accommodate the US market
737-500,
737-600 Shortened
versions of the -300 and -700 respectively
737-300,
737-700 The
new base models, slightly stretched over the 737-200
737-400,
737-800
Stretched versions mostly to accommodate charter and business airlines
737-900
and 900X
Recent versions stretched even further to close a gap in Boeing's product
line-up
737-700IGW,
737-800ERX
These variants have been awarded military contracts.
When
referring to variants of the 737, Boeing and the airlines often collapse the
model (737) and the capacity designator (-300, -800, etc.) into a smaller form,
either 733 or 738. The exception is the 737-700, which is abbreviated as 73G,
in order to avoid confusion with the model number itself. These notations may be
found in aircraft manuals or airline timetables.
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Preamble
Of
late, the urge to build an airliner has resurfaced after being squashed
attempting to build a Hasegawa 1:200 747-400 some years back. I naturally will
blame the resurgence of this keenness on the excellent participants and
contributors of the Aircraft Resource Centre airliner forum. Are you listening
Nenad, Brady and Dimitriy??
The
final barrier was dropped when I found a nice looking Virgin Blue “Reverse
Livery” decal sheet by Underworld decals on eBay. These were snapped up in
short order and looked most fine on the sheet (but not on application – more
on that later).
Time
to go out and purchase a kit to drape the decals on, but which one? Research and
some questions followed and a week after getting the decals I came home from the
hobby shop with a Minicraft 1:144 737-300. This kit was the American Airlines
boxing, for those who really needed to know.
The
Kit
Opening
the box revealed a crisply moulded set of sprues and a clear nose transparency.
The decals looked good on the sheet, being in register and the instruction
booklet was adequate and only a little vague in spots. So far so good!
Construction
Assembly
started with assembly of the wings and the fuselage. I pre-sprayed the fuselage
halves with black to hide the lack of interior when looking through the main
wheel wells and added some fishing sinkers to the nose to make sure this little
airliner sat on its nose. The clear transparent nose was added and most of the
sanding and seam clean up centred around the nose to blend everything in. This
is where the flex-i-file really came into its own, allowing seam removal to take
place with ease, without sanding flat spots over the fuselage. All the fuselage
doors bar the cargo hatches were filled in to avoid issues with mismatched
decals.
Dry
fitting of the assembled wings and horizontal stabs indicated that I could leave
them off until the fuselage had been completed and decaled. Now this was a first
for me and testament to the quality of the kit. Only a little filler was needed
to smooth over the engine nacelle pylons to the wings. Any other gaps got the
PVA glue wiped over with a cotton bud treatment.
Time
for painting!
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Painting
and Decaling
I
then used a spray can of Citadel Skull White for the white fuselage body
layering on multiple light coats with fine wet n dry sanding in between. I then
set that aside and more questions over the correct colour grey were asked. The
consensus was Modelmaster FS16440 Light Gull Grey. I prefer Acrylics and
Modelmaster Acryl paint is not to be found west of Sydney, so delving deep into
my paint locker uncovered an ancient bottle of Modelmaster acrylic FS16440. Half
an hour of stirring and thinning with Tamiya thinner produced a paint fit to
fire through the airbrush onto the wings and horizontal stabs.
After
the grey had dried I masked and sprayed Tamiya AS-12 BMF over the leading edge
of the wings, stabs and tail. Removing the masking revealed a successful
exercise and everything was looking great.
Too
great in fact!
Johnson’s
Super Stride was applied in three thin even coats using a flat wide brush,
preparing the surface for decal application.
Decal
time and I was salivating to how good the decals were going to look on this
earliest of Virgin Blue’s 737’s
The
decals turned out to be a really big problem. The tail logo refused to even lay
on the surface let alone conform. After many attempts I gave up, leaned back in
my chair and tried desperately to figure out what to do. Aha!! Virgin Blue took
an ex Ansett 737-300 and applied their livery over the Ansett colours. Tramping
back upstairs to my trusty PC, I surfed over the Hawkeye Decals and within 20
minutes ordered Ansett decals depicting the 3 Sydney Olympics 2000 mascots, Syd,
Millie and Ollie. They look so nice on the sheet I purchased another sheet at
WASMex 2004!
These
decals performed beautifully! They are a little thick, but went on well, only
needing a little coaxing with Decal solution to snuggle down well. A good result
out of a potential disaster!
I
sealed the decals in with another 2 coats of Super Stride and put aside the
fuselage to dry.
Finishing
Touches
I
then tackled the engine nacelles and undercarriage assemblies. Smoothing out the
seams inside each nacelle was fiddly but with a little time and effort all was
well. The inside of each nacelle was painted with Humbrol polished aluminium and
washed with a dark grey sludge wash to bring out the fan blade details. The
burnt iron and gunmetal engines were masked and each assembly painted white to
match the fuselage. Once the Sydney Olympics logo was added and sealed with
Super Stride, they too were set aside ready for final assembly.
The
undercarriage was then cleaned up, painted and made ready for installation after
the wings and horizontal stabs were added and left to dry overnight.
The
only problem I found was the fiddly and difficult assembly of the main
undercarriage doors. Must be another easier way surely, than cutting up each
door into 3 pieces and installing insitu?
With
the installation of the engine nacelles and undercarriage, the 737-300 was
finished.
Overall
Well,
my first airliner successfully built and I am pretty happy with the results.
Lessons learned will help me build my next airliner in this scale.
I
wholeheartedly recommend the Minicraft 737-300 kit to anyone!
References
Michael
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