Tag: Boeing

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Video: The little plane war

This week’s video describes the war between Boeing and Bombardier over the CSeries jet. Watch to find out exactly what it was about.

Try to answer the following questions about the video and come back on Monday for the answers.

Suggested ICAO level for video: 5+

  1. How successful were Airbus’ A318 and Boeing’s 717?
  2. What proportion of London City Airport’s arrivals are Embraer planes?
  3. Why are the reasons for this?
  4. Why is the US a big market for small planes?
  5. What major setback did the CSeries programme have?
  6. What saved the programme after this setback?
  7. What kind of order did Bombardier lack?
  8. What did they do to fix this?
  9. How did Boeing react to this?
  10. What did Airbus do?
  11. How did this help?

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Have a great weekend!

The Little Plane War

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Video answers: Why the 737 doesn’t have landing-gear doors

Here are the answers to last Friday’s video, enjoy!

Suggested ICAO level for video: 5+

  1. Boeing wanted the 737 to be low to the ground, as a result they realized that they didn’t have enough space for landing-gear doors.
  2. They’re heavy and complex, making the plane heavier and more likely to have a problem and cause delays.
  3. No, the landing-gear doors cover the wings and landing gear struts, but not the wheels.
  4. Boeing engineers decided to place hubcaps on the wheels to reduce the drag.
  5. If the hubcaps are lost there is a significant fuel penalty that the pilots have to apply to the flight plan.
  6. Boeing uses rubber blade seals to remove the gap between the wheel and the wheel-well bay.
  7. As the main landing gear is retracted, the brakes are applied to stop the wheels spinning.
  8. Icing doesn’t affect the wheels as the aircraft flies because that’s not an area of the plane that typically suffers from icing. Icing usually forms on wing leading edges, horizontal stabilizers, tail fin and the nose.

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Video: Why the 737 doesn’t have landing-gear doors

This week’s video describes why the 737 doesn’t have landing-gear doors and why that works.

Try to answer the following questions about the video and come back on Monday for the answers.

Suggested ICAO level for video: 5+

  1. What made Boeing decide not to use landing-gear doors?
  2. What are some of disadvantages of landing-gear doors?
  3. Is the 737 landing gear completely uncovered?
  4. What did Boeing do to reduce the drag created by the exposed tyres.
  5. What happens if this solution is lost?
  6. What solution did Boeing create to prevent objects being thrown into the wheel-well bay?
  7. What happens to the main landing gear wheels as they’re retracted?
  8. Why doesn’t icing affect the tyres as the aircraft is in flight?

Follow us on twitter here, Facebook here or Google+ here for more great content!

Have a great weekend!

Why does the Boeing 737 not have any landing-gear doors?

Paid promotion: https://brilliant.org/mentourpilot/ Have you ever seen a Boeing 737 take off and noticed that the wheels are still visible after the gear has been retracted? In this video I will tell you all about the reason for this, the aerodynamic impact and some protection systems that you might not know about.

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Video answers: Why are the 737 engines flat?

Here are the answers to the previous video, enjoy!

Suggested ICAO level for video: 5+

  1. It was designed in 1960s.
  2. Designing it to be low to the ground made it easier to load by baggage handlers.
  3. This characteristic became an issue for the 737 designers when they wanted to update it with turbofan engines which were much bigger than the previous turbojet ones.
  4. The solution was to redesign the engine pylons and move the engines further forward to the front of the wings and raising them a little. Also, by making the engine intake a little flatter they were able to gain a few more centimetres of clearance from the ground.
  5. Landings are sometimes performed with a slight bank angle and this could cause engines which are low to the ground to hit the runway, so making them as high as possible is desirable.
  6. A lot of equipment was moved to the side of the engines, making them wider.
  7. The MAX has a higher ground clearance to accommodate the new LEAP engines. This means that the MAX doesn’t have the iconic engine shape of former 737 generations.

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Video: Why are the 737 engines flat?

This week’s video describes why the 737 engines have their iconic shape.

Try to answer the following questions about the video and come back on Monday for the answers.

Suggested ICAO level for video: 5+

  1. When was the original 737 designed?
  2. What characteristic made it easier to be loaded with baggage?
  3. When did this characteristic become an issue for the design of the plane?
  4. What was the solution to this issue?
  5. How is this issue affected by the landing procedure?
  6. Why is the engine a lot wider than it is high?
  7. How is the ground clearance different on the MAX?

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Have a great weekend!

Why are the Boeing 737NG engines FLAT?

Have you ever noticed that the lower part of the Boeing 737NG engines appear flat? What is the reason for this and a few more interesting details will be covered in todays video. Enjoy!

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Video answers: The plane of the future

Here are the answers to last Friday’s video, enjoy!

Suggested ICAO level for video: 5+

  1. It regretted the decision to end production of the 757 program.
  2. It has left them with the problem of not having a modern plane with between 231 and 358 seats.
  3. The market wants a middle-of-market plane that can fly longer distances and carry 250+ passengers.
  4. Boeing plans to make a middle-of-market plane with between 225 and 260 seats. Boeing intends to call it 797.
  5. Airbus is offering the A321LR as a solution, but it’s not quite as big as the airlines would like and will probably only be used temporarily until the 797 is built.
  6. Manufacturers are looking into electric planes that could make flying competitive in price with trains or even buses.
  7. It might be particularly useful for shorter regional routes, between 200 and 400 miles in distance.

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