The roar of the aircraft of the American company Boeing is familiar to heaven over all continents, seas and oceans. Unfortunately, this sound is not always peaceful, one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers for a long time specialized in the issue of strategic bombers, but this story is not about them, but about the Boeing 767 passenger airliner.
Aircraft of this series began to be operated on domestic and international lines from the beginning of the eighties of the twentieth century. A total of 767s were produced over a thousand, for the aviation industry of any country this is a pretty serious figure. What is the secret to such success?
The Boeing 767 is the first mass-produced twin-engine aircraft capable of covering distances of five thousand miles or more without landing. Before him, such a task was feasible only for four-engine cars. This fact alone does not mean much, because the passenger, in fact, doesn’t care how many engines are installed on the plane that carries it from Paris, say, to Kathmandu. But this is only at first glance. Two even more powerful engines weigh less than four, which means that the whole plane becomes lighter. You can take more passengers and pour more kerosene into the tanks. Fuel consumption is reduced, the flight is cheaper. Such is the addiction.
The aircraft has a wide fuselage, which increases its capacity and improves flight conditions.
The 767th series occupies a middle position between the 757th and 737th series of Boeing aircraft, that is, it has the dimensions needed for airlines with a moderate degree of congestion.
After the Boeing 767, the scheme of a wide-body monoplane with a low wing and two engine nacelles under it began to be used by other manufacturing companies, Airbus, Tupolev, Sukhoi. Their planes are no worse, and perhaps even superior to Boeing, in terms of their characteristics, because progress continues, but the fact that the 767th series after so many years of launch and continues to successfully compete with younger manufacturers says a lot.
Speaking of features. The Boeing 767 flies at a speed of 850 km / h to a distance of 12 thousand kilometers with 270 passengers of two classes and their luggage on board. The machine is very reliable, during the operation only fifteen planes with a minimum number of casualties were lost, and the vast majority of these incidents were not to blame for the equipment, but for the wrong actions of the crew or malicious intent. So, during the September 11 attacks, the attackers used exactly the type of liners.
There is a known case when the 767th with idle engines flew over a hundred kilometers and successfully landed, receiving minor injuries, after the elimination of which it returned to duty.
Russian airlines widely use the Boeing 767. Aeroflot operates eleven machines, Transaero - five, they are in the fleet of Krasnoyarsk Airlines, Russia and other domestic air carriers. At the same time, none of the aircraft of this type in our country crashed.
Russian passengers appreciated the convenience of flying a Boeing 767. The interior layout has become classic, with three seats in the middle row and two on each side, so out of every seven seats, four have direct access to the aisle.
Even Roman Abramovich has such a plane, at the request of the owner he is painted in white-gray-steel colors.