What Is The 'handle' On 737 Rear — Tech Ops Forum

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What Is The 'handle' On 737 Rear

Zionstrat From United States of America, joined Apr 2001, 226 posts, RR: 1
Posted (11 years 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 1679 times:

My question is easier to show than to describe- If you look at the rear right fuselage of the first and 3rd 737s, you will notice what appears to be a 'handle' on the right rear fuselage (just aft of the door) and I'd love to know what it is-

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Photo © AirNikon

It looks like a release for a hatch or door, but this is just a guess and I can't find anything searching past queries.

12 replies: All unread, jump to last

BA777 From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2001, 2138 posts, RR: 8
Reply 1, posted (11 years 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 1645 times:

My guess is maybe the APU intake?

I dont honestly have a clue Sad

BA777

Broke From United States of America, joined Apr 2002, 1322 posts, RR: 4
Reply 2, posted (11 years 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 1642 times:

What you call the "handle" is a aerodynamic deflector designed to increase the airflow into the flush inlet mounted on the fuselage. The inlet, itself, was developed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautic (NACA and the predecessor of NASA) in the US and the inlet is called a "NACA Inlet". I believe that this inlet is the air intake for the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) that is mounted in the rear fuselage of the 737. You can see the exhaust of the APU at the extreme rear of the fuselage. The deflector (I'm not sure what Boeing calls it) is needed when operating the APU in flight, but not on the ground. The APU provides air for engine starts and air conditioning and electrical power on the ground. In flight, it provides electrical power when one of the engine driven generators is inoperative or is a back-up to the engine driven generators when making precision approaches in bad weather. The later use is required for what are known as CAT 3 approaches.

LMP737 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR:
Reply 3, posted (11 years 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 1632 times:

BA777 is right, the handle you speak of is the inlet for the APU.

Zionstrat From United States of America, joined Apr 2001, 226 posts, RR: 1
Reply 4, posted (11 years 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 1620 times:

That's ironic- Apu intake was my first guess until I got a close look at one this weekend and decided it would generate too much drag for an intake- Shows that I can't visualize NACA inlets very well.

Not the first time I've been fooled- I always thought that the P51 belly airscoop looked like a ridiculous source of drag until I learned that it was actually quite clean apparently due to the NACA spec-

Thanks for the fast replies!

OPNLguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR:
Reply 5, posted (11 years 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 1603 times:

Another view... (Crafty folks, those NACA/Boeing types..)

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Photo © Joe Pries

Airplay From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR:
Reply 6, posted (11 years 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 1597 times:

Well...you learn something new on this forum everyday!

I always wondered where the term "NACA scoop/inlet" came from.

EssentialPowr From United States of America, joined Sep 2000, 1820 posts, RR: 2
Reply 7, posted (11 years 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 1539 times:

The underside, wing tank dynamic pressurization inlets of most Boeing designs (727 in particular) are a NACA design as well. They're optimized, of course, to prevent ice buildup while minimizing drag.

Cheers-

IMissPiedmont From United States of America, joined May 2001, 6201 posts, RR: 43
Reply 8, posted (11 years 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 1513 times:

And if you look closely, you will notice the "concorde wing" in front of the inlet.

What is it with all the "is there a possibilty airline X will.." threads? The answer it'll is possible.

Kcle From United States of America, joined Feb 2001, 686 posts, RR: 0
Reply 9, posted (11 years 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 1490 times:

Since we are talking about the rears of 737's, what are those series of pipes on the top of the fuselage right next to the rudder? There are four pipes on each side of the rudder, protruding from the fuselage about 6 inches. They are all in a column. I haven't seen any good pics of these things, but I myself have an excellent pic of them, but I'm too lazy to scan it and try to find a web site to load them to.

LMP737 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR:
Reply 10, posted (11 years 3 days 8 hours ago) and read 1478 times:

There called vortex generators.

Bio15 From Colombia, joined Mar 2001, 1089 posts, RR: 7
Reply 11, posted (11 years 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 1433 times:

Kcle, I know this great website you can upload your picture to... I don't quite remember the name,,...........uh........ gues it's http://www.airliners.net ! lol Smile