Boeing 737 Classic (-300 / -400 / -500)
CFM56 power and the famous flat-bottomed 'hamster pouch' nacelles · First flight 1984 · In service 1984
The Classic swapped the noisy JT8Ds for high-bypass CFM56-3 turbofans. The 737 sits so low that the bigger fan barely fitted, so the accessory gearbox was moved to the side of the engine — giving the nacelle its flat bottom and the nickname 'hamster pouch'.
The 737-300 flew on 24 February 1984 and entered service that year with USAir and Southwest. It was followed by the stretched 737-400, launched by Piedmont and in service from September 1988, and the short 737-500, a 737-200 replacement first delivered to Southwest in February 1990.
Boeing built 1,988 Classics — 1,113 -300s, 486 -400s and 389 -500s — before production ended in 2000. The -300 was the most successful of the three.
