Dstefanc From United States of America, joined Dec 2001, 63 posts, RR: 4 Posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 4217 times:
Hi. I don't know if this question was asked before; I couldn't find anything in the search. Sorry if this circled through the forums before. Anyways, do any of You know how the whole 7_7 numbering of Boeing planes started, what the significance behind that is, ect. Also, at the same time the whole Airbus thing with 3_0 (usually, excluding 319, 318, ....). Thx a lot in advance for the replies.
AeroWesty From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 18881 posts, RR: 64 Reply 1, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 4201 times:
It was derived from the registration number of the prototype: N70700
Goboeing From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 2630 posts, RR: 12 Reply 2, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 4083 times:
I do not remember where I read this, but 700 was the series of Boeing's commercial aircraft. Maybe 300 could be missiles, 400 could be space equipment, etc. Bill Boeing added 7 to 700 for good luck and that was the 707.
LeanOfPeak From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 509 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 4056 times:
Hearsay has it that 707 is derived from one-half the square root of 2, which is the sine and cosine of 45 degrees, which may or may not have been the originally-intended wing sweep angle. Then they liked the 7's and stuck with them.
AeroWesty From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 18881 posts, RR: 64 Reply 4, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 4042 times:
Bah, the cobwebs in my brain need sweeping.
Airline interest was somewhat slow in coming, however, so Boeing officials looked to give the project a new, more memorable name. The Model 367-80 had never been intended as anything more than an internal designation. Models in the 500s had been reserved for gas turbine engines and the 600 series for missiles. The 700 series was again intended for aircraft, so the company board decided to officially christen the Dash-80 as the Model 707.
Newark777 From United States of America, joined Dec 2004, 9348 posts, RR: 33 Reply 6, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 4011 times:
Hearsay has it that 707 is derived from one-half the square root of 2, which is the sine and cosine of 45 degrees, which may or may not have been the originally-intended wing sweep angle. Then they liked the 7's and stuck with them.
That's pretty interesting. The numbers work out, but I'm not sure if that is why they chose 707.
Lincoln From United States of America, joined Nov 2004, 3887 posts, RR: 8 Reply 8, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 3949 times:
So I'm not the only one who noticed the Swingline 767
Every time I have to (*shudder*) manually staple something (usually when the photocopier is out of staples) I wonder if it's just a coincidence
Lincoln
[Edited 2005-01-29 08:03:15]
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Dstefanc From United States of America, joined Dec 2001, 63 posts, RR: 4 Reply 9, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 3937 times:
Moose135 From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 2009 posts, RR: 12 Reply 10, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 1 hour ago) and read 3707 times:
Hearsay has it that 707 is derived from one-half the square root of 2, which is the sine and cosine of 45 degrees, which may or may not have been the originally-intended wing sweep angle. Then they liked the 7's and stuck with them.
That's the story I heard 30-odd years ago, and never heard anything else that sounded remotely believable.
Thrust From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 2673 posts, RR: 11 Reply 11, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days ago) and read 3617 times:
GoBoeing is absolutely correct. In my "Boeing Jetliners" book, Boeing explicity states that they originally were going to call the 707 the 700, but since 7 is a mystical number and since it sounded better, the name 707 was substituted for 700. Thus came the 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777, and now 787
Ozzie From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 338 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 3602 times:
When I was on the tour of Everett a couple of years back the tour guide driving the bus around the pre-delivery dock area was asked this same question, and she too gave the answer that 7 was seen as a mystical, and lucky number not necessarily by the engineers but the public as well.
OldAeroGuy From United States of America, joined Dec 2004, 3206 posts, RR: 66 Reply 13, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 3560 times:
Goboeing's reply is correct.
Airplane design is easy, the difficulty is getting them to fly - Barnes Wallis
Wilcharl From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 1158 posts, RR: 3 Reply 15, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 3427 times:
Every Boeing model has had the # 7 associted with it... I have brought this up many times before... its a mystical thing... even the military products...
B-52..... 5+2=7
B-29..... 9-2=7
KC-135..... 5+3-1=7 or its Boeing Int. Designation of 717
B-17
CH-47
LTBEWR From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 12337 posts, RR: 12 Reply 16, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 3407 times:
The number 7 is considered very lucky in many cultures, especially in Asia. As to the staplers, they just copied the names from the Boeing a/c models as sounded so 'jet age'. I have a '767' model Swingline stapler on my desk.
Av8trxx From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 657 posts, RR: 7 Reply 17, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 3282 times:
The Boeing historian Mike Lombardi replied to my Email about this very subject a few years ago. He told me that the marketing department was responsible for the 7x7 designators with the birth of the "707" as they thought the illiteration of the format was very favorable, in addition to sevens being 'lucky' and -700 series for commercial a/c concepts. The mathematics idea about the 707s wing was nice, but someone showed how it didn't truly work out and it's an urban legend. (Can't find it right now.) However, here's an excerpt about this topic-
Whatever happened to the 717?
by Ed Brown
Fortune magazine; 2/2/1998
Boeing announced in early January that it is rechristening the McDonnell Douglas MD-95 as the Boeing 717-200. But why wasn't there already a 717 in the skies? There's the 707, the 727, the 737.... The gap hints of an Edsel-like disaster in the company's past. But it's not that. The first 717 had its day--as a military cargo and airborne-refueling plane called the KC-135.
In the early days, says Boeing historian Mike Lombardi, the company numbered its products sequentially, starting with 1. Boeing kept this up until the 1950s, when it assigned a set of numbers to each of its product lines--600 for missiles, 700 for commercial jets, etc. Every significant initiative within a given series, even if it was just a sketch, got a number, which explains why Boeing's first commercial airliner, unveiled in 1954, was not the 700 but the 707. Then the marketers decided they liked the palindromic ring of "707" so much that every 700-series jet name would end with 7.
The prototype that produced the 707 also spawned a military jet, which was marketed as the 717. Once the U.S. Air Force renamed the plane according to its own classification system, however, everyone--including the folks at Boeing--started calling it the KC-135. Boeing stopped making the plane in 1965, but about 550 of them are still in use by the Air Force. "
Frontiers4ever From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 173 posts, RR: 0 Reply 19, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 2958 times:
yeah the Boeing 7-11 could becalled the Quicky Mart.
Areopagus From United States of America, joined Sep 2001, 1357 posts, RR: 1 Reply 22, posted (8 years 3 months 3 weeks 5 days 16 hours ago) and read 2028 times:
Every Boeing model has had the # 7 associted with it... I have brought this up many times before... its a mystical thing... even the military products...
B-52..... 5+2=7
B-29..... 9-2=7
KC-135..... 5+3-1=7 or its Boeing Int. Designation of 717
Oh, come now.
B-17
CH-47
Also the 307 airliner, the B-47 bomber, the KC-97 tanker, and the Vertol 107 (=CH-46) helicopter.
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