Boeing's new 717-200 is a point design for the short-range airline market, and the 100-seat aircraft has the body of the venerable DC-9, the soul of the much larger MD-11 and the heart of a new BMW Rolls-Royce turbofan engine. The former MD-95, the aircraft's name prior to the Boeing acquisition of McDonnell Douglas in 1997, has a similar fuselage and wing to the DC-9-30, which first flew in the mid-1960s, The 717s fuselage is some 4 ft. 9 in. longer than the DC-9-30. The aircraft's cockpit design, however, is more similar to the three-engine MD-11, developed by McDonnell Douglas in the late 1980s. With the focus on airlines making multiple daily flight legs, the aircraft's systems have been upgraded and purposely been kept simple for ease of maintenance and reliability.
展开▼
