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.
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 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 |
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Photos and text © by Justin Davenport