1/144 R-G 737-800

Gallery Article by Justin Davenport

 

LMB 797 – the world’s first single engine jetliner

Based on the R-G 1/144th scale 737-800 kit 

In 2006, LMB (also known as BoeLockMarting by some wags after the company was formed in 2004) rolled the dice on a huge, and ultimately losing, corporate gamble.  The airlines had been in recession seemingly forever since September 2001, and with the Arab-Israeli war threatening to turn nuclear, all airlines, even the best-managed ones, were bleeding red ink.  Three of the US “majors” had liquidated and a fourth was due to collapse any day, and others had merged.  The airlines were trying to cut costs any way they possibly could.  And LMB needed a new project to keep its assembly lines and experience from permanently fading in the sunset. 

After much deliberation, LMB and the airlines quietly decided that a single engine jetliner could be a viable alternative on certain routes.  A single engine would decrease maintenance costs per plane and increase fuel economy, which was all-important.  The jetliner could not be operated on overwater routes, but the surviving U.S. majors decided that single-engined jetliners would represent an acceptable risk on domestic routes given the state of engine technology (advanced).  But the airlines needed to convince the FAA to allow single engined commercial jetliner operations, and their lobbyists finally twisted enough arms in Congress to get the FAA to approve single engine operations for commercial airlines with the proviso that the airliner could not fly more than sixty miles away from the nearest airport (the gliding distance of a jetliner can be 60-100 miles under the best of circumstances), that the airliner would fly stage lengths of no more than three hours, and that a demonstrated backup “recovery” method be available to safely land a jetliner if the engine cut out during takeoff. 

Needless to say, this “recovery” method would really not be workable.  But LMB engineers put together a software package which would automatically (in theory) guide the airliner toward a safe landing spot if the engine quit, and they also devised a modification to the auxiliary power unit in the tail that would redirect its exhaust into the jetpipe and theoretically provide backup propulsion (one engineer called it “an engine and a half”).  This “recovery” method was really just a very frail figleaf that would prove to be highly inadequate. 

LMB could not afford to develop a brand new design, so they took the 737-800 160-seat jetliner and warmed it over as the 797.  Most of the 737’s structure and systems were retained, but the wings were strengthened to compensate for the loss of the two underwing engines.  The tail was totally redesigned, with an air intake at the top of the fuselage and an S-duct going into the fuselage, leading to an uprated CFM-56 engine in the tail with 35,000 pounds of thrust.  The plane looked like a smaller version of the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar when all was said and done. 

When the 797 was first announced by LMB, it was trumpeted as a revolutionary new aircraft that would bring the airlines back to profitability because of its outstanding economics.  LMB glossed over the fact that it only had one engine by burying that little detail with words such as “the 797’s fully redundant propulsion system”.  The FAA helped out by calling its new single-engine rules “Extended Redundant Operations” or EROPS.  In theory, EROPS applied to all airliners, not just single-engine types, and so the fact that airlines were going to single-engine jetliners was further obscured and quieted.  The FAA’s rulemaking hearings were also not widely publicized, while the public was preoccupied with the Middle East war and other issues, and though the 797’s announcement generated questions and concerns almost immediately, real public awareness of the issue did not gain strength until the airliner was in revenue service. 

 

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The prototype 797 was converted from a 737-800 that had been destined for delivery to one of the liquidated majors.  The 797 made its first flight in September 2007, only 10 months after the program’s announcement.  Initial tests went well enough, but the aircraft had to be lightened to be able to perform acceptably in cruise (Mach 0.76 at 33,000 feet) and payload limits were quietly imposed on production aircraft.  The “recovery” software gave engineers many headaches and once nearly caused the prototype to crash when it cut in during final approach after the third test flight.  However, LMB management would allow no delays, and the FAA made it clear that the “recovery” system needed to be tested to its satisfaction before any deliveries could be made to launch customers Southwestern and American Continental Airlines.  Southwestern’s first 797 was due to be delivered in June 2008 and both airlines threatened to cancel orders and look to Airbus if that target was not met.  So the program’s senior managers, behind closed doors, decided to set a test for February 2008 – and to do ANYTHING to make the test a success, even if corners had to be cut.  Therefore, the production APU was secretly replaced with a small jet engine from a Tomahawk cruise missile, with its own, carefully hidden exhaust.  This engine delivered 40 percent more power than the APU ever could, and made the difference between success and failure during the test.  The FAA required that the aircraft be loaded to a weight and payload (plus fuel) equivalent to that of a normal 2 hour long revenue flight, but just before the test, right after the FAA weighed the aircraft, project personnel secretly offloaded half the fuel load at the end of the runway and the FAA never saw what happened.  The aircraft began its takeoff roll, and just after V1 the engine cut out as planned.  The recovery program immediately switched the cruise missile engine on, scanned the flight path for a suitable landing spot – in this case, a second parallel runway, took the controls and activated the autopilot, and began dumping fuel from the wings.  The jetliner clawed its way into the air and struggled mightily just to make it past the end of the runway.  At 250 feet, the plane turned around and lined itself up with the parallel runway.  The plane staggered its way to the runway and barely had time to flare its nose 10 degrees before the main wheels touched down just 10 feet past the beginning of the runway.  But the test satisfied the FAA’s requirements and the way was cleared for the 797’s certification in April and revenue service in June. 

Amazingly enough, the 797’s first few months in revenue service went fairly well.  The reliability of modern engines ensured that there were no “engine-out” incidents during the first few weeks of operation.  By October, Southwestern, American Continental, and Southern Midwest had taken delivery of some 797’s converted from existing 737’s as well as new-build 797’s just beginning to roll off the production lines.  The new 797’s cost per seat mile was far lower than the 737-800’s and the airlines were able to lay off a number of engine maintenance personnel.  However, not all was rosy.  The routes the 797 was forced to fly limited airlines’ flexibility and increased some costs (small unused fields had to be equipped with ILS systems, for example) and public unease made itself felt with a number of complaints and flight cancellations from savvier, more knowledgeable fliers.  

It was only a matter of time before the 797’s underpowered, single-engine design would cause serious problems.  However, the type slowly established itself on routes such as Phoenix-Salt Lake City, Los Angeles-Las Vegas, Dallas-Houston, and Washington-New York-Boston, among others, and new aircraft were ordered by Mexicanaero, Canada Continental, Davenport Air, and a large new Asian startup called Seagull, based in Tokyo.  By December 2008, each of these airlines had started operations with the type. 

In July 2009, a Southwestern 797 suffered an engine failure during final approach to Salt Lake City International Airport.  The plane glided in to a safe landing, but not without some anxious moments for the passengers and crew (including one Justin Davenport) who were flying in from Phoenix.  The fuel dump was done so close to the ground that I-80 was covered with jet fuel and two cars caught fire while they were driving.  The Salt Lake incident was a harbinger of things to come.  Two months later, the day of reckoning happened with two separate crashes 24 hours apart.  A chartered American Continental 797’s engine (carrying the Cincinnati Bengals football team) quit during cruise on a flight from Cincinnati to Kansas City and the plane glided into a wheat field.  All on board survived but the plane was written off and the “Bungles” missed the game against the Chiefs and the NFL postponed the game, which was just as well, as the Bungles were in the midst of a record 40 game losing streak.  Just 24 hours later, a Seagull Airlines 797 suffered an uncontained (explosive) engine failure during an overwater route from Fukuoka to Okinawa, carrying a planeload of sumo wrestlers to the grand championships (Seagull – run by the yakuza - quietly began using 797’s on some overwater routes even though it was prohibited by law, and made a few payoffs to Japanese politicians to keep them from asking too many questions).  The 797’s engine had to be run at maximum power far more often than anticipated, and that led to increased wear – which in turn led to the Seagull disaster.  The aircraft was midway between the two islands when the engine exploded, and the plane could not possibly make landfall.  The pilots ditched the 797 into the Pacific, but the plane ditched near a school of sharks and broke into two, and only one person – the copilot - survived to be rescued by Japanese SAR aircraft.  This disaster caused a massive backlash against the 797, against LMB, against America, against the airlines, and against the yakuza, and Seagull Airlines was shut down two months after the crash.  A wave of concern soon became an outright demand by the flying public to ground the 797 permanently, and a third crash involving a Southern Midwest jet flying between Atlanta and Miami gave the type its coup de grace.  In this case, the SM jet’s engine quit during takeoff and the plane crashed right into a used car dealership next to the airport.  (Amazingly enough, the owner – one “Jake the Snake” - salvaged several of the burnt-out cars, rebuilt them using parts from other cars and the scrapyard, rolled back their odometers, and sold them off as “nearly new” in a new lot).  The type was permanently grounded in June 2009 and no more single-engined jetliners were ever flown.  There is however, a happy ending to this – new management at LMB and at the airlines revitalized the airline industry and the economy recovered from its doldrums.  By 2011, the airlines were flying twice the people they were before September 2001, on airliners with no fewer than two engines. 

THE MODEL  
This was a quick and dirty build.  I wanted to flex my creative writing muscles and see what a single-engined jetliner would look like in the flesh.  I’d thought about how the airliner builders could technically do a single-engined jetliner if they wanted, and thought the prospect to be amusing.  And the week of Jan 1-7 would be given over to kitbashes on ARC so I decided to finish my write-up and model in time to send before the new year started.   

I used the R-G kit, the only modifications I made were to glue one of the engine nacelles (minus the fan) to the top of the fuselage with CA, then I used a combination of yellow “bluetack” and Tamiya putty to scratchbuild the S-duct.  It’s pretty crude and MOST unimpressive if you look at it in person!  I also used decals for the windshield (from a Minicraft 757 kit) simply because I messed up the transparency when I glued it on (no I didn’t use super glue for that either).  I couldn’t think of any suitable airline markings (the kit had Hapag-Lloyd’s) so I just left it white…and I’ll finish the landing gear and such another time.  I hope y’all have some fun looking at this! 

Happy modeling   

Justin Davenport

      

Photos and text © by Justin Davenport