Posted on 09/30/2025 6:04:15 AM PDT by Red Badger
Boeing is in the early stages of developing a new single-aisle airplane that would eventually replace the 737 MAX, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. Rolls-Royce declined to comment, while Boeing did not respond to a Reuters' request for comment.
The 737 MAX entered service in 2017 but was grounded globally in 2019 after two fatal crashes killed 346 people. The incidents slashed Boeing's profits and triggered lawsuits, investigations, and a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted the grounding order in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last Friday, the FAA said it would allow the planemaker to issue airworthiness certificates for some 737 MAX jets, starting this week. This authority had been revoked in 2019 following the second fatal crash involving the model in Ethiopia.
Earlier this year, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg met with officials from Rolls-Royce Holdings in the UK to discuss a new engine for the aircraft, according to the WSJ report.
The U.S. planemaker has also been designing the flight deck of a new narrow-body aircraft, the report said, adding that development remains in the early planning phase, with final decisions yet to be made.
The planemaker told WSJ that its recovery plan remains on track, with priorities including the delivery of roughly 6,000 back-logged commercial airplanes and the certification of previously announced models.
Still, Boeing continues to face regulatory scrutiny.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
t's positioned as a long-term response to competition from Airbus's A320neo family. While details like timelines and costs (potentially tens of billions over a decade) are still emerging, the focus is on incorporating modern technologies for better efficiency and addressing past 737 MAX challenges. No sources indicate it's a 737 derivative.
I find it a bit ironic because the MAX design was created to compete with that Airbus model. As T.B. Yoits wrote, Boeing decided to add high bypass engines but could not get the needed ground clearance without an airframe redesign. So they shoved the engines forward and compensated with software. That's what led to the two fatal crashes in 2019. So Boeing is finally going to discard that kludge concept and go with a clean sheet of paper design.
A plane with no windows? I wouldn’t fly in that. But I’m mildly claustrophobic.
That’s also true.
“Get rid of the ‘flying cigar tube’ design”
That’s a bit like saying “get rid of the three box design for a sedan”. Some shapes occur for the reason of practicality.
The only viable options aside from the “cigar tube” is the “flat cigar tube” (aka “blended wing”) where the body acts somewhat like a wing and some sort of true flying wing or V wing.
They do exist, e.g., Natilus Horizon actually flies and the TU Delft (a V wing) is being built.
They look really cool!...................
It should replace both 737 and 757. One 7 across narrow body of varying lengths and two engine/wing/box sets for short or long haul. It should be modular for future configurations.
They do.
The main issues are:
(1) there are no windows aft, which creeps people out.
(2) most designs won’t work with current airport designs. You need ones that can get to a jetway that a 737 can also get to. (Any V wing, as proposed, takes two jetways — or the sides have to go one-at-a-time.)
(3) while inherently more aerodynamic and actually fly (as in “lift” or “glide”) better, they require computers to keep them stable, which also creeps people out.
I expect blended wings, in particular, to go first, as they are the most likely to work with existing jetways. They are also being built for business jets that will be in the market shortly — and don’t use jetways.
A good choice, even if it's 10 years late.
Hope their engineers do a better job this time...
Please 757!
Not even one Incident Report was filed about the allegedly deadly auto-pilot software.
Two crashes.
Four Muslim pilots.
They should go with the flying donut shape!
Flying wing.................
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