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Aerodynamics of the 737-300

Contributed by Nick Duros

Saturday, 21 January 2006

Page 10 of 10

During decent, the airplane is very clean and has a high glide ratio, about 3 miles for every thousand feet of altitude. For ballpark planning purposes you have to be at 10,000 feet or less by 30 miles from landing in order to assure a comfortable descent. There are many different methods to plan your decent profile. You could use the on board FMC (Flight Management Computer) but a good practice is to back the FMC computer up with the slower computer between your headsets. For every 1000 feet up you need three miles, so to descend from 31,000 feet to 10.000 you will need approximately 63 miles to make a comfortable descent. You can do a quicker descent buy using the speed brakes if ATC requires it, but as an old Captain once told me he does not like to use the speed brake for ATC because they cause some vibrations to the aircraft that passengers may not like. And I quote the Captain, “These speed brakes are for my mistakes to get down in time, not for ATC mistakes.”

On short final with 30 degrees of flaps, 40 degrees for shorter runways, the 737 is like any other airplane, airspeed control and path are important; you just have to stay ahead. On any large aircraft it is important to keep your engines spooled up because from idle to positive thrust there is a lag time of a few seconds, which will seem like hours if you get behind the power curve. On touch down you gently lower the nose to the runway, the ground spoilers should deploy automatically, but you need to verify this, while applying reverse thrust. The brakes are very sensitive but backed up by an anti-skid breaking system that feels similar to anti-lock brakes in cars if you need max braking on a slippery runway. This article was not meant to qualify you for your type rating but to give you a short summary on what is like to fly the 737-300. I feel that the 737 is a very well built and reliable airplane that has been my pleasure to fly. -John Duros

Some interesting facts about the 737 include:
- The 737 has had the basic airframe and aesthetic appearance since 1967.
- 40,3% of occupants survive fatal B737 accidents
- At any given moment, 800 737s are in the air around the world.

Works Cited

Boeing 737-300/400 Pilots Handbook.

Brady, Chris. The Boeing 737 TECHNICAL SITE . 21 Nov. 2004 .

Duros JR, John. E-Mail interview. 28 Nov. 2004.

NASG Airfoil database. 21 Nov. 2004 .

UIUC Airfoil Coordinates Database - Version 2.0. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 21 Nov. 2004 .

"CFM 56-3 Technology." CFM56: Engines. CFM. 29 Nov. 2004 .