I don't know. What would you use as two engines on the 727 to replace the three old JT8Ds? You can't tail-mount CFM-56s like the 737-300 and later use. And if you did what the "Super 27s" did and slap JT8D-217s back there (as on the MD-88), you've still got older, noisier, less fuel-efficient engines. RR Tays like UPS uses on their 727s? Or maybe IAE engines like on the MD-90? I'm actually surprised the 727 hung on in mainline service as long as it did (until Delta got rid of theirs in 2003).
I think the 727's the most gorgeous jetliner ever built, but I can see why the 737's eclipsed it. What Boeing's done with that design--swapping the old JT8Ds for the CFM-56s, stretching it, adding the winglets, almost completely recreating the avionics in the NG -600 through -900--is just remarkable. They've taken a short-hop 100-passenger plane and turned it into a transcontinental plane hauling nearly 170-180 people.
But nothing compares to the sound of three JT8Ds wide open and belching soot. Hush kits? We don' need no steenkin' hush kits! :)
}:-)4
Why not. I'm talking about replacing the three engine configuration with two more powerful side mounted engines and getting rid of the S-ducted middle engine. I don't see why the CFM-56 engines wouldn't have worked in that configuration. In fact it wouldn't have required the extreme modifications to the engines and nacelles that were required to put them on the 737.
What Boeing's done with that design--swapping the old JT8Ds for the CFM-56s, stretching it, adding the winglets, almost completely recreating the avionics in the NG -600 through -900--is just remarkable.
They didn't just add winglets. The NG 737 has two whole new wings. There's the wing for the 737 600 and 700 and the wing for the 800 and 900. They are supercritical airfoils like the one on the 777.