Boeing rethinks aerospace rulebook as `797' plans take shape

Boeing is seeking to rewrite the rules for creating commercial jets as it hones plans for a new midrange aircraft nicknamed the 797. For decades, Boeing pushed its planes to fly ever farther. The 787 Dreamliner, the company’s last all-new jetliner, opened nearly 200 nonstop routes. The 777X will be the first twin-engine jet designed to haul more than 400 travellers halfway around the world. But for its next aircraft, Boeing plans to dial back the ambitions for range, shooting instead for a plane that’s tailored for, say, the eight- to ten-hour flight from Chicago to Central Europe. That market hasn’t been considered cutting-edge since the Berlin Wall was standing and the company’s 757 and 767 were forging new trans-Atlantic connections. More recently, Airbus SE has been edging into the niche by bumping up the range of its popular single-aisle jetliner, the A321neo. The new jet Boeing is contemplating would fill a gap between the planemaker's biggest narrow-body and its smallest wide-body. What’s revolutionary about the so-called 797 is the gush of money that Boeing hopes to get not from making and selling the plane, but from keeping it in the air. The mid-market family would be the first Boeing jets designed to make money for the world’s largest planemaker long after the point of sale. The initial purchase of a jet represents about 30 percent of the lifetime costs of operating the aircraft, said Stan Deal, who heads Boeing’s new global services division. Capturing a bigger slice of the remaining 70 percent that comes from services and maintenance over the following decades represents a lucrative opportunity for Boeing -- and a cushion against down cycles when airplane sales stall.<br/>