First look at Boeing’s new 737 MAX

17. Sep 2015

by BusinessClass

Boeing have released new photos of the first 737 MAX 8. Employees in Boeing’s factory in Renton, near Seattle, have started final assembly of the first of Boeing’s new, more efficient single-aisle family.

Employees start final assembly of the first 737 MAX Construction is on schedule for the first 737 MAX to be rolled out by the end of the year and to be flown in early 2016. Southwest Airlines is scheduled to take delivery of the first 737 MAX in late 2017. In total, the 737 MAX family has 2,869 orders from 58 customers worldwide.

Keith Leverkuhn

, vice president and general manager, said, “We continue to meet our plan on the 737 MAX program thanks to the dedication of our employee team and our suppliers. We have a lot more work still ahead of us but we’re very pleased with our progress to date.”

Beoings new 737 MAX The aircraft will be competing with Airbus’s recent addition, the A320neo,

which first took off in September 2014

. Boeing say the new 737 MAX is 20 percent more fuel-efficient than the company’s current 737 fleet. The wings of the aircraft feature Boeing’s new, exclusively designed winglets. The distinctive curled-up wing-tips offer “1.8 percent additional fuel-efficiency improvement over today’s inline winglet designs,” according to Boeing.

New winglets Leverkuhn continues, “Seeing the new winglet design we validated in the wind tunnel years ago now on the first new airplane is incredible. It’s just one of the features that differentiate the 737 MAX and make it an amazingly fuel-efficient machine.” Boeing currently have three new aircraft under development – the 737 MAX, the 777x, and the 787-10 Dreamliner.

Airbus A320 NEO