Nice plane!Flickr/Tomás Del Coro
- The Boeing 717 is a slightly offbeat aircraft that went out of production in 2006.
- Boeing chalked it up as a failure, a result of absorbing some McDonnell Douglas planes when it acquired the planemaker in the mid-1990s.
- But the 100-seat 717-200 is now in serious demand, as carriers move away from regional jets.
- I recently flew on a Delta Air Lines Boeing 717 from Newark to Detroit.
I’ve flown on many big aircraft and plenty of small ones. I’ve flown on Boeings, Airbuses, and Embraers, Bombardiers and a host of more obscure names.
But until recently, I’d never set foot on a Boeing 717, a smaller aircraft that Boeing inherited when it bought McDonnell Douglas in 1995 for $13 billion.
I tend to like really small jets, tolerate regional aircraft, richly enjoy big planes — and dislike the narrow-bodies that do most of the grunt work of hauling passengers around the US on domestic routes these days.
The 717-200, in Delta livery, that I boarded last month for a flight to Detroit from Newark, NJ, was a mystery. I wasn’t sure what I was strapping into.
I figured out quickly what I was dealing with — and then settled back to enjoy the ride. Which was unexpectedly thrilling.
The Boeing 717-200 is actually a rebranded McDonnell Douglas MD-95. Boeing acquired McDonnell in 1995 for $13 billion.
Sadly, as Business Insider’s Ben Zhang reported, “On May 23, 2006, Boeing delivered the last two 717-200 jetliners to customers at its Long Beach, California factory.”
“It marked the end of a program filled with promise but that had ultimately failed to capture the interest of airlines. Even Boeing’s well-oiled sales operation could only manage to muster up 156 orders for the little 100-seat, short-haul-airliner.”
Se ya later, 717. So why did I like the aircraft so much?
You already know about the thrilling takeoff whine as the engines went to full power. But what really got me was the sports-car-like nature of how the jet handled in the sky.
I’ve flown on many regional jets, as well as on mid-size narrow-bodies and wide-bodies. I’ve flown on big Boeings and big Airbuses. And I’ve sampled a few private jets. In most cases, when I’ve sensed the pilot was having a good time, it was on private wings — and now, the 717.
The 717 seems to carve the sky. But unlike older planes of its design that I flew on when I was much younger, updated avionics and construction make for a smoother ride. If you’re a larger adult who needs some space, you might not care for this aircraft. But if you aren’t, and you like to feel something when you’re flying, the 717 could be a plane you look forward to.
I know I’ll be looking forward to my next flight!
