Why do Boeing models start with the number 7?

For the past four decades, Boeing’s airliners have all started with the numeral 7 and it is not often that anyone ever asks why? In reality the answer is complex, but throughout the ages, the question remained behind multiple secretive walls that would protect the secret behind

Boeing’s naming formula.

However, over time the world became more open. The Berlin wall fell and subsequently, various organisations and government officials would reveal more and more information about their history.The world finally found out why every single commercial Boeing aircraft starts with a 7 and ends with a 7.

From Model 40 to the 307

The reality is much simpler and less, much less exciting. It does go back to Boeing’s history, as the company always named its aircraft sequentially. Before the Second World War, such aircraft as the Model 40, the first Boeing aircraft that carried passengers and the Model 80, the first American plane built to carry passengers, represented Boeing in the commercial sky. At the time, the Seattle-based manufacturer built mostly military aircraft, which was the company’s ‘bread and butter.’

Boeing Model 40

At that time, Douglas had a firm hold of the commercial aviation market with its DC-2 and DC-3. However, slowly but surely, Boeing started gaining traction in the commercial market. Firstly, with the 307 Stratoliner and then after the war, Boeing came out with the 377 Stratocruiser, which in 1947 made its maiden flight with the now bankrupt Pan American World Airways. However, Boeing’s commercial aircraft only achieved limited success.

From the 367-80 to the Boeing 707

As the Second World War ended, Boeing’s president William Allen decided the company needed to diversify its portfolio. To avoid confusion within the company and when communicating with Boeing’s customers, the engineering department classified its products as follows:

• 300 and 400 were designated for commercial aircraft

• 500 would mean turboprop engines

• 600 were allocated to the rockets and missiles departments

• Boeing assigned the number 700 to jet engines.

For this reason, Boeing named the Stratoliner and Stratocruiser the Boeing 307 and Boeing 377 respectively. The first aircraft to bear the number 7 at the start was the 367-80. After a successful period of test flights, Boeing assigned the number 700 to the model, as it had jet engines. Nevertheless, this is where the magic of the naming formula becomes real. As the first commercial jetliner was about to revolutionise aviation, Boeing’s marketing team thought that the name 700 sounded rather boring. So instead, it suggested changing the name to 707, as it sounded much better.

What a huge success the 707 turned out to be!

Consequently, all future models of Boeing’s commercial jets had a 7 at the start and a 7 at the end. Namely 707, 717, 727,737,747,757,767,777,787 and their many derivations. Everyone a real beauty!

What about the name - 737 MAX?

David Calhoun was appointed as Boeing’s new CEO in January 2020 and he is being watched closely to see how he steers the company’s flagship commercial aircraft division and in what ways he breaks from his predecessor - Dennis Muilenburg. For future products, Calhoun is resetting, but not abandoning, the prospect of a clean-sheet aircraft design. On the issue of government relations, Calhoun wants significant improvements with regulators, but will he re-brand the 737 MAX? Will he rename it?

“I am not going to market my way out of this,” Calhoun told CNBC. His quip is a major difference from Muilenburg’s buttoned-up approach but does not necessarily depart from Boeing’s previous plan to place the grounded 737 back in the air as the MAX and not with another name. However, Calhoun was given the opposite advice by Steven Udvar-Hazy, the executive chairman of leasing company Air Lease, which is one of the ten largest customers for the MAX with more than 150 on order.

More than merely being a MAX customer, Udvar-Hazy has large influence on aerospace, although he normally reserves his opinion for technical matters, not branding. “We have asked Boeing to remove the word MAX,” Udvar-Hazy said at the Airline Economics’ Growth Frontiers’ conference, the annual large gathering in Dublin, Ireland of the aerospace sector. Udvar-Hazy continued: “The ‘MAX’ brand is damaged. I think that word MAX should go down in the history books as a bad name for an aircraft.”

However, most airlines were not using the ‘MAX’ name even before the two crashes of this model in 2018 and 2019. A month ago, of the 54 airlines that had their livery painted on a MAX aircraft, only 11 airlines used the word ‘MAX’ at the front of the aircraft, the most obvious location for passengers to identify the aircraft. A further 26 airlines wrote ‘MAX’ at the back on the tail. Three airlines referred to the aircraft’s numerical designation, like 737-8, without mentioning MAX. That is what Udvar-Hazy suggests. “There is no reference to ‘MAX’ in any of the documentation that Boeing submitted to the FAA regulators.

Calhoun’s plan to instil public confidence in the aircraft relies heavily on pilots. “This plane will recover with the flying public when airline pilots fly it, like it and by the way, based on all the test flights we have had to date, which are many, they do,” he said. One observer said “If Boeing was to rename the 737 MAX, it could erode trust in the aircraft even further. Renaming the Boeing 737 MAX could, in the worst case, be seen as an effort to deceive passengers who may end up flying on the aircraft.”

Where do regulators come into this debate?

First reported by the New York Times, Boeing commissioned research to study how to rebuild public trust in the 737 MAX. In addition, Boeing established its own 737 MAX website that relies heavily on pilot commentary, including video testimonials. Previously Boeing found 65% of the public trusted information from aviation authorities, whilst 41% favoured information from 737 MAX pilots. Although Calhoun is not expecting to regain public trust merely by dropping the ‘MAX’ name, his answer about rebranding the 737 is not a complete rejection. Yet if he does drop the name, there will be few practical changes for Boeing’s airline customers.

Apart from restoring trust in the 737, one of the most important tasks for Boeing is getting the MAX flying again and this trust can only be restored by pilots, operators, as well as the travelling public. Part of this will include being 100% transparent about what is happening with the programme. According to Al Jazeera, Calhoun has no plans to scrap the Boeing 737 MAX programme. In fact, he expects the production programme to resume before the aircraft re-enters service, which is expected by mid-2020.

Boeing Model 40

Boeing 367-80