Business: Boeing Plans a Rubber Plane

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With two engines—or three

The thick smokescreen surrounding one of the biggest mysteries of commercial aviation is clearing at last. Airlines will soon have to replace their aging fleets of about 1,500 707s, 727s and DC-8s, but existing models are too big or too small to meet the demand for an intermediate-range plane carrying 180 to 200 people. Many aerospace manufacturers have been reluctant to build new planes until they learn what Boeing, the industry leader, is going to do. Now Boeing seems to have settled on a basic design for a "high technology" jet. Says Jerry Cosley, TWA's director of technical information: "It could set standards for the design and purchase of aircraft for the next two decades. But it is still only a paper plane, and airlines like to see planes fly before they make up their minds."

Boeing salesmen had been trying for nearly five years to get potential buyers to choose between a long-range, three-engine plane seating eight across and a shorter range, two-engine model seating six across. Both had supporters, but Boeing was unable to get enough advance orders for either one to make the $2 billion production wager worthwhile.

Boeing has come up with a sound compromise. It has told airlines, including United, American, Delta and Swissair, that it will build one plane seating seven abreast. But the plane can made with either two or three engines; seating can vary between 180 and 210, and ranges can be either 2,300 or 4,600 miles. Forward of the tail, where the third engine will be located, both the tri-jet and twin-jet will be virtually identical.

Boeing still refuses to confirm the plan, but it makes sense. By offering a "rubber" airplane that can be all things to all customers, the company can hope to get enough orders to start building this summer for delivery by 1982.

The new plane, dubbed the "767" by industry sources, will look rather like a slim version of Lockheed's L-1011. It will cost from $20 million to $25 million and have the high technology that air lines are demanding.

Cockpit instruments will be electronic digital readouts. New composite building materials will make the plane much lighter than current aircraft. A top-secret wing design will be more efficient, providing greater speeds and range for less engine thrust; and the engines will use less fuel and make less noise than existing jets.

Boeing's plane will face tough competition for some $50 billion in aircraft orders expected in the 1980s. The fuel-efficient, 229-seat Airbus, made by a French-German-Spanish consortium, will be a strong challenger. Neither McDonnell Douglas nor Lockheed has yet announced new high-technology planes. Instead, they will offer modernized versions of the DC-10 and L-1011. Boeing is gambling big that the airlines will prefer an all-new plane that will still be flying, and coming out in up-to-date versions of its own, in the year 2000.