Have you ever thought how airlines choose the titles for their planes? In the USA, as well as in other countries, it’s not unusual for commercial airlines to name their airplanes. Airlines don’t choose their names randomly. They use a more meaningful system to name their airplanes. It is named after its town of birth, or a star, or a saint. It may be named after a hashtag or a humorous pun.
Airlines also use location-based names for their airplanes. The airline may name the airplane if a particular airplane performs a significant number of flights to a particular place. El Al, as an instance, has named several of its airplanes, such as Rehovot and Jerusalem. Many airlines have followed suit by naming their planes after locations as well.
Concerning the Dash 80 (367-80), since it was meant to be both an Air Force tanker and transport in addition to a commercial jet, it had to be assigned a 700 number. When Model 700 was floated, the advertising department objected so Model 707, which they believed had a nice ring to it, was assigned for the jet, and that it wasn’t catchy enough. And, because the 7-7 was the little they liked, the Air Force jet was named the 717 by Boeing.
The only exception is the 700 numbering system is. The amount was shortened to 720 to cover the fact that it was a 707 that was initially altered to help United Airlines. Since that time, Boeing commercial jets have been named based on the 7-7 and contain numbers between 727-787, and more recently, the 7E7.
Changing into Boeing Airplane Company in 1917, although founded as the Pacific Aero Products Co in July 1916, Boeing was re-tooling and adapting to the end of World War II as it came up with its numbering system.
Lufthansa fleets and German cities go hand in hand
Lufthansa has named its fleet after German cities and cities since 1960. Their thumb rule is that the bigger the plane, the bigger the place it is named after. Larger aircraft are named after German states with the Lufthansa Regional fleet’s planes getting the titles of towns. Their Airbus A380s broke tradition after Lufthansa hubs anywhere on earth were named. For instance, one bears the title Johannesburg. The A380 being named by Hamburg’s mayor using champagne.
More than 300 Lufthansa planes are named after German cities. The Berlin name has been carried on by five wide-bodied planes.
Naming fleets during World War II
During the Second World War, the titles of Boeing became more standardized, and its two primary products, B-17, the bombers, and B-29, were representing this. The names were derived from the letter/number designations given during the airplane’s design phase. As all designs in a given area were assigned consecutive numbers, those letters/numbers missing between B-29 and B-17 were presumably designs that were considered but discarded before production.
There were exceptions following this system being enforced, like the B-47 or the moniker of KC-97 (presumably a military designation) for what was technically the 367 Stratotanker. There were different prominent developments of one product reflected by sequential numberings, like the 367-80 variant of the Stratotanker.
After the 717, the business decided to keep the”7″ exclusively for business jets, at the urging of their advertising department. Although it might seem as if Boeing planes are numbered, there is a method to their madness.
Uncle Sam no longer had lots of bombers constantly and when the war ended, Boeing recognized it needed to change and diversify its portfolio of products. To reach a larger audience business concentrated on four areas and numbered each in blocks of hundreds: plain aircraft were 300s and 400s, turbine engines were in the 500s, rockets and missiles were delegated the 600s, and jet aircraft could be in the 700s.
