Yflyer From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 755 posts, RR: 1 Posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 5 hours ago) and read 10139 times:
I've seen this question come up in a few threads, but it doesn't seem to have been discussed in great detail. (If it has been please point me to the relevant thread)
Presumably, the next plane Boeing develops after the 787 Dreamliner will be designated the 797, and they they'll have used up all the possible 7X7 designations. Has anyone heard any rumors about what designation they'll use after that?
Possibly 2707, or 1707?
Maybe they'll go with letters... 7A7, 7B7...?
Lemurs From United States of America, joined Mar 2005, 1439 posts, RR: 4 Reply 1, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 5 hours ago) and read 10123 times:
You could speculate on this all day long. What's wrong with 7117 and then 7227? Or 808 and then 818? Or any number of other ideas. It's all about marketing and retaining brand recognition. You can be sure whatever they choose, there will be a very big marketing/PR push by Boeing to help link the new naming system with the old one for continuity purposes.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world; those who understand binary, and those that don't.
TeamAmerica From United States of America, joined Sep 2006, 1760 posts, RR: 25 Reply 2, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 5 hours ago) and read 10097 times:
808! The number "8" is considered lucky in Asia, which is why we've seen A380-800 and 787-8 ... somebody in marketing thinks this is a big deal in a big market. I wouldn't be surprised if Y1 is delivered as the B808, skipping B797 entirely.
Watch Airbus respond with the A800-800...count on it.
KFLLCFII From United States of America, joined Sep 2004, 3236 posts, RR: 38 Reply 4, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 5 hours ago) and read 10102 times:
Quoting Lemurs (Reply 1): You can be sure whatever they choose, there will be a very big marketing/PR push by Boeing to help link the new naming system with the old one for continuity purposes.
767, 777, 787, 797, 807, 817, 827, 837, 847...
"About the only way to look at it, just a pity you are not POTUS KFLLCFII, seems as if we would all be better off."
Kappel From Suriname, joined Jul 2005, 3533 posts, RR: 21 Reply 5, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 5 hours ago) and read 10052 times:
How about just using names? I guess that's not practical, but they have been doing it lately, the Dreamliner, Intercontinental and Dreamlifter. (787, 748).
Falstaff From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 5172 posts, RR: 33 Reply 6, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 9974 times:
Quoting Kappel (Reply 5): How about just using names? I guess that's not practical, but they have been doing it lately, the Dreamliner, Intercontinental and Dreamlifter. (787, 748).
I think they have done that for a while. Wasn't the 727 called a Whisper Liner at one time?
Falstaff From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 5172 posts, RR: 33 Reply 8, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 9938 times:
Quoting Kappel (Reply 7): Wasn't that Eastern? They also named the DC9 whisperliner.
I think so. I fly on NW's DC-9s all the time and if you sit in the back there is no whispering to be done!
I always liked how TWA had the Star Stream 727 and 707. It just sounded cool. Which I guess is why they called them that.
MaverickM11 From United States of America, joined Apr 2000, 14243 posts, RR: 51 Reply 11, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 9818 times:
KFLLCFII From United States of America, joined Sep 2004, 3236 posts, RR: 38 Reply 12, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 9820 times:
Yflyer From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 755 posts, RR: 1 Reply 13, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 9786 times:
Quoting TeamAmerica (Reply 2): 808! The number "8" is considered lucky in Asia, which is why we've seen A380-800 and 787-8 ... somebody in marketing thinks this is a big deal in a big market. I wouldn't be surprised if Y1 is delivered as the B808, skipping B797 entirely.
You know, in retrospect maybe they should have just skipped 787 as well and called the Dreamliner the 808. That would be a good way of conveying the idea that it's the beginning of a brand new generation of airliners, much like the 707 was in its day, while still maintaining a sort of continuity with the old designations. But what do I know about marketing...
Stitch From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 23589 posts, RR: 80 Reply 14, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 3 hours ago) and read 9641 times:
"2707" was used for the SST program.
I think 7x8 would make a good model number as it keeps the relationship with the "7" and commercial aircraft. So you'd have the 708, 718, 728,etc...
BosWashSprStar From United States of America, joined Jan 2007, 180 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 3 hours ago) and read 9586 times:
Unfortunately 808, 818, etc. don't have the same nice rhythm that 737, 747, etc. have owing to the two syllables in the number "7". Even if this is a trivial problem in the grand scheme of things, they're going to have a hard time extending this extremely powerful brand.
As such, I suspect you may see recycling of existing 7-series numbers (remember--7 is a lucky number in some Western cultures, and that's also a big market!) using name tags alongside, in the vein of Dreamliner and Worldliner.
SirOmega From United States of America, joined Sep 2005, 735 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 9427 times:
If they call it 808 I wonder if Roland will sue them.
(Roland made the first cheap programmable drum synthesizer, the TR-808, commonly refered to as the 808)
Yflyer From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 755 posts, RR: 1 Reply 17, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 9253 times:
Quoting SirOmega (Reply 16): If they call it 808 I wonder if Roland will sue them.
(Roland made the first cheap programmable drum synthesizer, the TR-808, commonly refered to as the 808)
I'm no lawyer, but my understanding is it's not considered trademark infringement if the products are different enough no reasonable person would confuse them. I have a Delta brand faucet in my bathroom, for example, and I don't expect it to fly me to Atlanta any time soon.
Now, if I opened a restaurant called McDonnell's, I'd probably hear from some lawyers representing a certain fast food chain.
BosWashSprStar From United States of America, joined Jan 2007, 180 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 9248 times:
Quoting SirOmega (Reply 16): If they call it 808 I wonder if Roland will sue them.
(Roland made the first cheap programmable drum synthesizer, the TR-808, commonly refered to as the 808)
Numbers can't be trademarked. That's why Intel stopped calling their processors 286, 386, 486, and moved instead to "Pentium" for what would have been the 586--there was a ruling that said they couldn't prevent AMD from copying those numbers.
Yflyer From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 755 posts, RR: 1 Reply 19, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days ago) and read 9203 times:
Quoting BosWashSprStar (Reply 18): Numbers can't be trademarked. That's why Intel stopped calling their processors 286, 386, 486, and moved instead to "Pentium" for what would have been the 586--there was a ruling that said they couldn't prevent AMD from copying those numbers.
Not true. A brief search of the US Trademark Office site turns up Boeing's trademark for the number 787, for example:
Tristarfreak From United States of America, joined Mar 2007, 125 posts, RR: 0 Reply 20, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 8388 times:
I think that Boeing might actually use either the 808,818,828,838,848,858,868,878,898,909etc..... or maybe the 807,,,,,,907 etc.... i wonder if the 828 will be a 3-holler lie the 727
FlyDreamliner From United States of America, joined Jan 2006, 2759 posts, RR: 19 Reply 21, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 8221 times:
Quoting Falstaff (Reply 6): Maybe NW will fly some DC-9NG models
DO NOT give NW the option to not get rid of DC-9. DC-9 needs to go away!
I'm sure millions of dollars will be spent on what to do about this naming issue. I have a hard time beliving the 7 will be going anywhere anytime soon. Everyone knows the 7x7 system.
Who hasn't heard 737, 747, 777?
"Let the world change you, and you can change the world"
Tugger From United States of America, joined Apr 2006, 3544 posts, RR: 4 Reply 22, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 8032 times:
Quoting Kappel (Reply 5): How about just using names? I guess that's not practical, but they have been doing it lately, the Dreamliner, Intercontinental and Dreamlifter. (787, 748).
Quoting BosWashSprStar (Reply 15): Unfortunately 808, 818, etc. don't have the same nice rhythm that 737, 747, etc. have owing to the two syllables in the number "7". Even if this is a trivial problem in the grand scheme of things, they're going to have a hard time extending this extremely powerful brand.
I'll suggest 18XX, as in 1808 (I guess it could be 07), 1818, 1828, etc. For the reason that it fits the multi-syllable rule that BosWashSprStar noted and of course 8 is a "lucky" number in Chinese culture which is where a huge chunk of air order will come from.
I don't know if "names" will ever fly (no pun intended but boy is it there!) every project will have a model number tagged to it and I think it will stick. As an example I will offer the Corvette, it has a name but every aficionado knows the Z1, or the Z06, or its "corporate" name C-5 (C-4, etc.). Even the "Pentium" change which is now "DualCore" relies on numbers like "2.16" for the speed and that what people use.
Tug
everything I have learned I have learned by mistake
MLI717fan From United States of America, joined Oct 2006, 173 posts, RR: 0 Reply 23, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 7802 times:
I personally liked the way the dreamliner was called the 7E7. Perhaps they could go to letters, 7A7.. etc.
Some of those may cause some problems because they look similar to letters. 7O7, 7I7, etc.
But hey, I wouldn't mind seeing some 7O7 or 7I7 aircraft in production in the future... haha
SCAT15F From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 318 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (5 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 7651 times:
How about 2707 (the name for Boeing's cancelled SST)?
2707, 2717, 2727, etc. It also would signify aircraft designed after the year 2000.
25 WesternA318: Intercontinental was used by Boeing for I believe the 707-320 jets...
26 Vorticity: I think Boeing with go with A390 to get to it before Airbus does
27 Countrydude39: Hi Everyone. i have thought about this for a while now. im not really sure what Boeing will do, im sure they have a plan. i personaly think they shoul
28 Albird87: Ok that would work for those three numbers but we refer to 737-800s as 738s and 748I's!! Boeing will need to have a 7x7 as that is what boeing do!! m
29 Razza74: Why not just keep going 7107 7117 7127 Sounds logical to me Razza74
30 KC135TopBoom: It was a reference to the one way you COULD NOT communicate on or near these jets. I think we will all get use to it. Remember the number "3", used b
31 American 767: No matter what Boeing decides to do, there will always be at least one digit 7 in the sequence for each model. Even before the 707 existed, there was
32 SEPilot: Quite true; Boeing built three commercial aircraft before the 707: the 247 (which got blown away by the DC-2), the 307 (based on the B-17; was eclips
33 Tockeyhockey: isn't it quite possible that we won't see any new designations going forward? in other words, boeing may have become like porsche, with the 911 stayin
34 SEPilot: I doubt it; there are still too many "old" 737's flying and Boeing will want to differentiate them.
35 Tockeyhockey: but why? they don't have to differentiate the -200s from the -700s, do they? and they can be 20 years apart or more. people trust the 737 as a brand.
36 FighterPilot: What made Boeing start the 7_7 theme to begin with? Cal
37 SEPilot: Boeing has kept the 737 going for a number of reasons, some marketing, some practical (certification, pilot qualifications, etc.) for over 40 years.
38 JSquared: I'll second the letter idea, as it keeps the naming convention intact and thereby brand recognition. Plus then they would have to go through 26 brand
39 D L X: No. The 808 mark does not cover airplanes. Each market has its own space of allowable trademarks, and there are many examples of different companies
40 Yflyer: I thought of that, too, but it still doesn't have quite the same ring to is. 7107 might get pronounced "seventy-one-oh-seven" rather than the "seven-
41 D L X: I think it will have more to do with type ratings. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 737-900 is the same type certification as the 737-100 was 30 year
42 SEPilot: Since the new versions (since the -300) have been glass cockpits and the -100 and -200 are steam guages I don't think this is true; but I do believe
43 D L X: You can make a computer screen look like anything, including steam gauges.
44 Af773atmsp: Here is what I think Boeing will do: 707 Advanced, 717 Adv., 727 Adv., 737 Adv., 747 Adv. (has Boeing already proposed this model before?), 757 Adv.,
46 Thebry: A far more likely scenario. There is a LOT of brand equity tied up in the 7x7 designations, and I don't think they'll be going anywhere anytime soon.
47 Stitch: Boeing did create and sell a 727 Advanced model. The 747 Advanced concept became the 747-8 when it was launched.
48 1337Delta764: Keep in mind is that if Boeing keeps the 737 name for the 737RS/Y1, not only will it cause confusion with pilots and technicians, it would suggest tha
49 Style: Boeing should just refresh the whole 7 series all over again. By the time they even announce anything like the 797 how many years will have passed???
50 Stitch: Alas, Boeing has done that too - the 737-700 through 737-900 are known as the "737NG".
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