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It absolutely is. Boeing already made a stretched 737 with larger engines. It's called the 757 and they stopped making it because airlines wanted bigger 737s.
by selectodude 6y ago
It absolutely is. Boeing already made a stretched 737 with larger engines. It's called the 757 and they stopped making it because airlines wanted bigger 737s.
- rootusrootus 6y agoLengthening the landing gear is a non-trivial design change. It might be more feasible to shorten the fuselage on a 757 than reengineer the gear on the MAX.
- ashtonkem 6y agoThe point is not “raising the vehicle height would be cheap”; it obviously wouldn’t. The point is that one of the key requirements was maintaining the 737 type certification. If that requirement was thrown out, they would’ve made a better airplane that wouldn’t have sold anywhere near as well as the MAX8.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kayfox 6y agoSince the 787 is somewhat a clean sheet redesign of the 767, Boeing wants to do the same with the 757 and is currently trying to get the traction with airlines to do that. Boeing had initially proposed a clean sheet redesign of the 737, but the market for that aircraft is very sensitive to training and operation costs.
- selectodude 6y agoAs of very recently they’re looking into putting new engines under a 757 and adding some carbon composite for lightness. They’re referring to it as the 757-Plus.
- ashtonkem 6y agoThat’s basically what airbus did to create the A320neo series; add in larger engines (including the same one the MAX8 uses, actually), and make a few minor tweaks to improve weight or aerodynamic efficiency. Done correctly it’s a brilliant move; 15-20% fuel savings without the need to significantly change pilot or maintenance (sans engines) protocols. Sadly the MAX8 was not done correctly.