Fighting for the Short Haul

First came one of those infuriating 2 1/2-hour delays on the ground while a mechanic replaced a faulty electrical relay, a standard item on any jet transport. Then Test Pilot Brien Wygle gunned the plane down a mere 3,200 ft. of runway and climbed swiftly into the sky above Boeing Field near Seattle. Boeing's twin-engine 737 was making its late-starting entry in the race to sell short-haul jets to the world's airlines.

Once the plane got aloft, everything went so smoothly on the two-hour 36-minute flight to nearby Paine Field that Wygle radioed: "I hate to quit. This airplane is a delight to fly." Beaming happily, Boeing President William McPherson Allen, 66, predicted: "We'll still be selling lots of these airplanes when Allen's in an old men's home--and I hope that won't be too soon."

So far, 19 airlines (eleven of them foreign) have ordered 146 of Boeing's smallest jetliner at an average price of $3,500,000. Boeing hopes to deliver the first models to West Germany's Lufthansa and to United Air Lines late this year. With a range of 1,300 miles, the 580-m.p.h. 737 can carry up to 101 passengers seated six abreast in its 12-ft. 4-in.-wide cabin. That is every bit as beamy as Boeing's longer 707s, 720s and 727s. A stretched-out version, the 737-200, will accommodate 117 travelers, and also comes as a convertible cargo-passenger plane. Unlike its chief rival, the Douglas DC-9, which has its engines mounted at the rear of the fuselage for a quieter ride, the 737 has its jets slung beneath the wings. The result, claim Boeing engineers, is a lighter plane with a roomier aft portion of the cabin. Both planes can make money with only a quarter of their seats filled, come equipped with their own boarding stairs, ground airconditioning, and jet-starting units to keep intermediate stops brief. The planes thus satisfy the airlines' most immediate need: low-cost jets to replace obsolescent piston and turboprop planes on runs of up to 1,000 miles, which account for 50% of the world's air-passenger business.

In the fight to fill that market, estimated at 1,200 short-haul jets, Douglas' two-year-old DC-9 has moved into an overwhelming lead: 441 firm orders plus 118 options from 33 airlines. Last week the company turned over the 100th DC-9 from its Long Beach plant to Eastern Air Lines. British Aircraft Corp., which managed to beat U.S. planemakers into the short-haul business, has delivered 85 of its twin-jet BAC One-Elevens, has orders for 67 more (none from U.S. airlines). And competition is growing. Next month The Netherlands expects to start test flights of its 65-passenger Fokker twin-jet F-28. At $2,350,000 per plane, Fokker figures that it can still grab a profitable chunk of business.

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