What doe the "7"s mean?

Ren, as Frank says, the A300 was named such as the original concept was for an aircraft that could carry 300 passengers (although it was shortend before it came into production). The A310 was a derivative of the 300 (did it have 10 less frames or something?)
The A320 was a completely different design, and as the 330/340 had already been conceived (jointly) by the time Airbus decided to offer an extended 320, this became the 321. When, shortly after a shortened version was offered, this logically became the 319.
The 340 did in fact take to service before the 330, but this was because the 340 had received more orders, so Airbus prioritised it during flight testing. Essentially, they’re structuturally identical except for the engines and their paraphenalia.

Finally, when yet another shortedned 320 series was planned, it was logical to make it the 318.

The 380 is the only one that dosen’t follow any real logical reason…

Originally posted by Hand87_5
I disagree Ren
The first airbus was the A300, then came the A310 then the A320 fimily and the A330 and a340. So it makes sense

yeah but the A340 came before the A330 didn’t it ? The A320 came before the 19 and that before the 18 ?

The A300 was named so because if the intended pax load, if I remember… The A310 was a derivarive, and the others… Well, they had started a denomination system, so… why stop there? :p

Originally posted by Ren Frew
So why start with A300 then A320, then A319, A340, A330. A380, A318 ????:rolleyes:

Apologies if that’s in the wrong order but it still makes no sense…

I disagree Ren
The first airbus was the A300, then came the A310 then the A320 fimily and the A330 and a340. So it makes sense

Well, it was meant to be a logical progression, but the A319/A321 and later the A318 were just derivations of the A320, so they didn’t need a new sequence number. That’s my take, anyway.

So why start with A300 then A320, then A319, A340, A330. A380, A318 ????:rolleyes:

Apologies if that’s in the wrong order but it still makes no sense…

Let’s don’t forget the 720.

Yes, but these are older aircraft and military aircraft.

Originally posted by Dazza
Apparently the number ‘7’ is meant to be lucky, in aviation circles at least, don’t know why, but I remember it being mentioned on a programme some time back.

-Dazza

P.S. If my spelling and punctuation is any worse than usual, its the beers fault!:)

Not all models have a 7
http://www.boeing.com/history/boeing/index_all.html

Apparently the number ‘7’ is meant to be lucky, in aviation circles at least, don’t know why, but I remember it being mentioned on a programme some time back.

-Dazza

P.S. If my spelling and punctuation is any worse than usual, its the beers fault!:)

707,
717,
727,
737,
747,
757,
767,
777,
What are they going to do with the 7E7 are they going to call it the 787

Actually, I read somewhere that Boeing was partial to the number 7, and was used traditionally such as the 247, 377, and the entire jetliner series, obviously.

Re: What doe the “7”s mean?

Originally posted by Mark L
I have been bugged by an irritating friend for about 6 months now to find out what the 7 in 747 means or what its significance is.
Does anyone know the answer?

Nothing, just a model number.
Just like Peugeot 406, 206, etc….
Started with the 707 obviously.
Before that you had the Boeing 124, 3xx etc.

Same goes for Airbus… no real significance. Its just easier to label aircraft models with numbers, rather than names.
Saves confusion in order books etc