There never should have been a “this generation” of 737, at least not how it was designed. It basically should have been an entirely new designation but they kept trying to shoehorn upgrades into it so pilots wouldn’t have to get recertified.

[–] r00ty@kbin.life 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I entirely agree, But I also kinda understand it. Without the new engines they could not compete with the A32x product line. But they wouldn't fit without the tricks they pulled. It should have been a new airframe designed to take those engines.

That re-design and certification would take too long though, and they'd lose huge market share to airbus.

Now, I say I understand their actions, this does not mean I agree with them!

[–] Shard@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Well, that's on Boeing as well. They slacked off in the R&D department for too long and allowed Airbus to one-up them. Then they tried some convoluted way to play catch up and failed epically...

[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

You'd think they'd take a page from American auto makers in the 1970s. They were king through the 60s and Japanese was economical trash that had no place on our open roads. Then the gas crisis crushed land yacht sales, Japan had more cash flow from their little cars, and they made their cars way more competitive in the US market. Meanwhile, US manufacturers just sat at the bar in their varsity jackets saying they're not worried.

[–] krolden@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago

Oh no it would take too long better make planes that will crash instead.

[–] PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago

It also minimizes tooling costs.