Nice Videos!

I don't sit and stare at the cockpit, if I enjoyed that I'd probably do it for a livingI do a bunch of things besides the various in flight required activities like changing fuel settings, tracking the fmc.If it's a really long flight I will do laundry, make food, watch tv, clean, etc

Thanks for all the help guys,Just another newbie question, what separates a 737 from a md-11. I know the MD-11 is more complex, but in what ways?CheersAlex

The 737 was designed as a short to medium range aircraft intended to make several flights in a day from place to place with limited ground support, essentially it was a jet commuter aircraft for the US domestic market in its original concept, but of course being so good, European airlines such as Lufthansa took an immediate interest in it and were among the launch customers for the early variants. However, the 737-100 (i.e. the very first model) was somewhat too small, and in fact gained the nickname of 'The Baby Boeing', so almost the moment the 100 rolled off the production line, the larger and more capable 200 series (which had been developed alongside the 100) was made available, and it was that which really formed the basis of the 737's success, especially when it was slightly improved into the 200ADV (advanced) model. Eventually, the 737 grew to become the 300/400 and 500 models, which were an interim step to modernise the 737 with 'glass cockpit' features (i.e. digital rather than mechanical instruments) and FMCs (flight management computers) as opposed to the then more traditional Inertial Navigation Systems which featured a lot of complex gyros and bits that required a lot of servicing.As a result, the 100 and 200 series 737s became known as 'the Original' models and the 300, 400 and 500 series became known as 'the Classic' model 737s. Having established the longevity of the 737 series and shown that it could be vastly improved but still maintain a lot of spares commonality with the 200 series, the next step was planned for the 737. Boeing have always been careful to ensure that 737s of various models handle about the same, despite their constantly improving capabilities, which is why you see the dorsal fin on some models, it being intended to make them handle like all the earlier ones so that airlines would find it easier to keep crews proficient on various models of 737. The only model that did not pull that off is the later 600 series 737, which is noted for being a bit 'twitchy' and was prone to flutter on the wings, necessitating a bit of wing strengthening and some other redesign work, but despite those changes, it has never been especially popular in comparison to other 737 models.Anyway, when Boeing set about further improving on the 300/400/500 series, the 'Next Generation' 737 (NG) models were born, these being the 600, 700, 800 and 900 series 737s. The name Next Generation incidentally, was a partial homage to the Star Trek TV series that was being aired at about the time these newer 737s started coming into service. The NG models took the glass cockpit concept to its current high state of development and they are very capable aircraft, much more so than the early models, yet they still handle in more or less the same way as those early ones.Nevertheless, the current big daddy of the 737 range - the 737-900 ER (Extended Range) model - is capable of flying huge distances if need be and even had to have extra emergency exits added to it in order to meet regulations because its passenger carrying capabilities had grown so much. So the NG 737s, whilst having a recognisably familiar lineage back to the original 100 series, are in fact vastly different aeroplanes, but their role as short distance 'city hoppers' is still where they are aimed at, thus the huge range of the 900ER is more about it not having to refuel so often when on multiple legs of a day's flying, rather than it being geared toward huge distance flights, even though it can do them. The 737 is still very much in production, but it is slated for eventual replacement by what Boeing have codenamed 'Yellowstone', and the current development of the 787 Dreamliner is very much about perfecting the technology for use in what Yellowstone eventually turns out to be.The MD-11 is a very different kettle of fish. It was developed from the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 (Douglas Commercial Model Ten). The DC-10 was born at a time when jet engines were not quite so reliable as they are today, which accounts for its three engines, rather than the two that you see on a lot of modern jets. It was common at the time for jets to feature that, hence things like the Boeing 727, Trident, Tristar etc, all of which have three engines. However, what engine manufacturers learned, was that the core of a jet engine itself is in fact very reliable, and it is the peripheral attachments of bits such as the piping for the fuel and the actuator motors that pump various bits around the engine that are the weak link, and not the actual gas turbine itself. With that in mind, modern engines tend to duplicate, or even triplicate such ancillary bits and pieces, and it is this which really makes modern engines more reliable rather than any great increases in technology and materials, although that too does certainly help.Since things like the DC-10 were geared towards Transatlantic flight, they needed three engines to allow them to legally make flights where they were a long way from a diversionary airfield, which is why you will hear people talking about ETOPS (Extended Range Twin Engine Operations), which are rules that came in allowing aircraft with just two engines to make such long flights, and most of that is about how engine reliability has improved in recent years. Any new type of aircraft has to demonstrate a certain amount of trouble-free operation before it can gain ETOPS certification, but engines are now so reliable, even new types that have only just entered service can qualify if they have demonstrated such reliability during flight testing (This is what Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner is up to at the moment). The huge twin engined Boeing 777 is one such aircraft which managed ETOPS certification right as it came into service. But it was in fact the Airbus A300 which kicked all this off by the way, with those European upstarts first mooting the idea of a big 300 seater plane that only needed two engines, which at the time of its conception was something many thought was not a good idea, but now it is of course commonplace with big jet aircraft.So, what that meant for things like the DC-10 (of which the MD-11 is a derivative) and the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, which was the DC-10's main commercial rival, is that they kind of showed up just as it was becoming the case that things like the twin-engined A300 were showing the way things were going to go. And of course, the A300, having only two engines, uses a lot less fuel, which in fact earned it the nickname of 'The profit machine'. Nevertheless, ETOPS and the A300 were not changes that happened overnight, so the Tri-jets did have their day, but it was when McDonnell Douglas realised the DC-10 needed a severe redesign if it was to compete with that uppity A300 and stuff like the Boeing 767, that they thought about upgrading their DC-10, so they set about doing that, and this is where the MD-11 was born.What McDonnell Douglas had to try and do, was update the DC-10 with better, more efficient engines, more modern fly-by-wire control systems (like the ones that were showing up on the newer Boeings and Airbuses), and give it improved aerodynamics too, so that it could compete with other airliners in terms of economics. There would still be a market for a Tri-jet, since there are in fact some places on Earth that are so out of the way, that it is not actually legal for a twin-engined jet to fly there (that's why Quantas have bought the A380), which means that three and four engined jets are still occasionally a viable choice, especially as freight aircraft.Sadly for MD though, the huge amount of more modern fuel-efficient twin jets such as the 767, A330, 777, and even some of the sleeker jets with four engines, such as the A340 and B747-400, meant that they could not do enough to make the revised DC-10 a winner. Airlines with DC-10s, Tristars and the newer MD-11 soon offloaded their tri-jets to cargo haulers, as they sought to add the more efficient alternatives to their fleets, and many freight companies snapped up the tri-jets at bargain prices as a result of the airlines desperation to offload them in favour of less gas-guzzling alternatives.All this means that whilst the MD-11 is in fact a good long range aircraft, and very modern and sophisticated, it was too little too late from McDonnell Douglas, and that can be seen in the fact that the company was swallowed up by Boeing, making the MD-11 now a Boeing product (even though it is not one of their designs).So to answer your question in a nutshell; the 737 is a short-to-medium range passenger jet that occasionally serves as a freighter (statistically it is the best selling jet airliner of all time, and also statistically the safest too). The MD-11 is a long-range freight hauler that was briefly a passenger jet, and it can occasionally go places where a 737 would not legally be allowed to fly. They are both complex aircraft, with modern cockpits and fly by wire digital flight controls, but the MD-11 is set apart from many other Boeing and Airbus products (which all make much of cross-range commonality features between models), by virtue of the fact that it is a product out on its own, and thus often seen as a challenging aircraft to fly because it has systems that are not necessarily familiar to pilots more used to Boeings and Airbuses.Hope that answers the question.Al

Alan, thank you so much for your (long) helpful reply. It answered all my questions CheersAlex