A detailed look at all the neatest Boeing 797 design elements

A detailed look at all the neatest Boeing 797 design elements

So, I went on a little road trip last week. San Diego to Phoenix (and back), all in one day. 738.1 miles total, 12 and a half hours in the car all by myself, with nothing but my own thoughts to keep me company.

sanspotter selfie in car
“Maybe I should have flown instead…”

I did a lot of thinking that day. Things like:

  • 2020 being the single weirdest year of my life
  • The possibility of my car breaking down in the middle of the desert
  • Dying of heatstroke, and…
  • Whether or not I had enough clean underwear to last the week if I somehow managed to survive the drive

I also thought a lot about airplane stuff. More specifically, how things have drastically changed this year and what the future holds for the entire air travel industry.

There are so many unknowns at this point, and I’m dedicating this entire article to one of the biggest question marks in the industry right now: the Boeing 797. 

Boeing’s 797 announcement (the one that hasn’t actually happened yet)

For those that don’t know, the 797 has not been formally announced yet. But we all know it’s coming. It literally has to, as Boeing needs to keep pushing the business forward and provide airlines with increasingly efficient airplanes.

I’d also suspect they’re getting slightly annoyed watching Airbus dominate them in nearly every category at the moment. As we all know, nothing drives motivation and innovation more than being laughed at by someone with a French accent.

Boeing’s ultimate plan for the 797

Prior to January 2020, Boeing’s plan for the 797 was for it be a 757/767 sized aircraft situated in their lineup smack dab between the 737 and the 787.

Airlines all over the world had a definite need for a Boeing 757 replacement (as the Airbus A321neo has proved), and it was all going great until, well…pandemic.

Now, at the time of this writing, that need has evaporated and the 797 program has been paused. Not only that, Boeing has stated that they will be starting over (from scratch) once the project is greenlit again.

The question is:

  • What purpose is the 797 likely to serve?
  • More specifically, what will it actually look like?

Because I can draw better than I can play aerospace CEO, I fired up Adobe Illustrator and created a mock-up of what the new design could look like:

Boeing 797 design concept
Behold the SANspotter Air 797. Of course I realize this dark gray livery is going to fade terribly in the sun, but…I don’t care. I’m the CEO, and I’m going to run my airline into the ground any way I want!

Oh, and if anyone at Boeing is watching (and you like what you see), I totally don’t mind if you steal my design. Just as long as SANspotter Air gets first dibs and 80% off the first batch of 797s of course.

What purpose will the 797 serve?

In my opinion, the 797 needs to be the 737 replacement – and not a medium-sized aircraft that is just slightly smaller than the 787.

After all, the 737 is over 60 years old at this point, and Boeing has done all they can with it. 737-sized aircraft are (and will continue to be) the best selling segment in commercial aviation. Time spent dinking around on anything else is stupid.

sanspotter road trip
Almost as stupid as driving across the desert all day with only one small container of water. Don’t ask me how I know this…

Anyway, that’s not to say that the 797 couldn’t be modular in nature to fit a variety of uses.

What if the 797 was designed to fill the role of both the 737 AND the 757? Do we really need two different aircraft types to do this?

SANspotter boeing 797
What I’ve illustrated here is a larger-sized variant of the 797. Perhaps a 797-9 (or -10).

Boeing has already started down this path by offering so many variants of the 737, and now there seems to be a variant for nearly any situation.

Of course, being a 60 year old platform, the limits have been hit and they now have the opportunity to learn from those limitations and build a far more capable (and versatile) aircraft from the ground up.

The design of the 797 will be based on the 787 (IMHO)

If I were a betting man – and I must be considering that I chose to drive across the desert in the middle of the summer – I’m willing to bet that the design of the Boeing 797 will be based on the existing 787.

The fuselage

I’d suspect that the fuselage will be taken directly from the 787 platform, from nose to tail, with few modifications other than scale.

 

Boeing 797 fuselage
How much you wanna bet that the fuselage is gonna look like a thinner (and shorter) 787?

And again, to any Boeing executives watching, please feel free to take notes. Together, we can make this happen…

The wings

As far as the wings go, I’d also suspect that it’s going to be based on the 787 design as well. However, there will be less of a need for overall surface area and rake, which will give it a slightly different appearance.

This means overall less wing flex while in flight, and…wait. Am I actually attempting to talk intelligently about aerospace aerodynamics?

Boeing 797 wing design
My apologies to #wingflexnation, but…the Boeing 797 wing won’t likely be as bendy.

The little details

If you’ve made it this far, I’d suspect that you’re a bit miffed that what I’m proposing for the 797 is yet another twin-engine design that looks a lot like every other aircraft flying around at the moment.

Trust me. As much as I’d love to see something wildly different, Boeing needs to hit a home run with the 797. That being said, let’s take a look at some of the details which might make the 797 unique:

The vertical stabilizer

The vertical stabilizer will likely be a very different design than what is on the 787, since it won’t need to do as much for the smaller 797. It’ll be shorter, feature a smaller rudder, and…yeah. I’m totally pulling ideas out of my rear end here.

Boeing 797 vertical stabilizer
The Boeing 797 vertical stabilizer. No! It’s not exactly like the one found on the 787 (but it’s close).

Pretending to sound like you know that you’re talking about when you really don’t is one of the first signs of heat stroke you know…

The landing gear

Continuing on making wild and crazy guesses is the fact that the landing gear will be relatively tall to allow for a variety of engine types.

Boeing 797 landing gear
The 797 landing gear will likely be taller than what is currently on the 737.

This is one of the main problems with the 737, and it’s not hard to imagine that Boeing hasn’t learned a thing or two from that mistake.

The engines

Speaking of engines, my only prediction here is that they will be relatively simple in design and NOT feature the iconic angular chevrons featured on the 787.

Boeing 797 engines
Don’t expect to see any ground-breaking design elements on the engine for the 797. It’ll probably be round. With a big hole in the front. Just like every other modern commercial aircraft engine…

It’s just a hunch, considering the main purpose of those triangular nibs was noise reduction. The smaller 797 engines (whatever they are) will likely be very quiet anyway.

When are we likely to see the first real 797 design?

With the current state of air travel, my guess is that we are 5-7 years away from seeing anything official from Boeing regarding the 797. They’ve currently got their hands full with the 737 MAX and 777X programs, and beyond that, demand for new airplanes is virtually nonexistent.

Boeing 797 design strategy
Hopefully Boeing’s design strategy for the 797 will be better than my strategy for creating a livery that’s most likely to fade within a year or two…

I can’t imagine that we’ll see the 797 fly before 2030, but (as shocking as it may sound) I’ve been wrong before.

Driving across the desert in August is a perfect example of that, as well as thinking that building a business doing trip reports was a fail-safe venture. What could possibly go wrong?

Anyway, please let me know in the comment section down below if you think I’m totally off-base here. Everything I discussed in this article was just my own thoughts and options, but I’d love to know yours! If you like this sort of thing, I also created a Boeing 727-300 concept that was a bit more aggressive than this.

Oh. And yeah. If you’re curious, I did have enough underwear to last the week…

Comments (12)

  1. Dale

    May 24, 2021
    • Scott (SANspotter)

      May 24, 2021
  2. Bill Allen

    December 2, 2021
    • Scott (SANspotter)

      December 3, 2021
  3. Sam Skwatch

    March 23, 2022
    • Scott (SANspotter)

      March 23, 2022
  4. Spencer Williams

    May 5, 2022
    • Scott (SANspotter)

      May 6, 2022
  5. Peter

    July 17, 2022
    • Scott (SANspotter)

      July 18, 2022
  6. Ryan

    August 21, 2022
    • Scott (SANspotter)

      August 21, 2022

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