My latest creation: the Boeing 737-200. This was second member of 737 family, and was launched by the airline in which my aircraft depicts: United Airlines. It was a stretched variant of the -100, but apart from that, it was almost identical. This particular 737-200, registration N999UA, is pretty significant in the 737 family of airplanes: unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. When Boeing built this particular 737 in 1982, they unintentionally built into it, a deadly design flaw into the plane’s rudder system, that lay in wait like an aneurysm for the 9 years this plane served, first the ‘old’ Frontier Airlines, then United Airlines. It was on March 3rd, 1991, after around 26000 flight hours’ worth of service, the aneurysm burst. It was on that day, the plane, operating as United Airlines flight 585, as the aircraft was on approach to Colorado Springs, Colorado, that the conditions needed for the flaw to rear it’s head, were met. In the rudder, a failure of the rudder’s power control unit, caused a rudder hard over to the right (This is when a control surface, in this case the rudder, jams all the way to one side). The jet, carrying 25 people, violently rolled to that side, catching both pilots of guard. The pilots began to attempt a go-around, but by now the jet had begun a deadly spiral toward the ground. Within 9 seconds of the failure, the jet crashed, 80 degrees nose down, at nearly 400kph. The violent impact and resulting post-crash fire obliterated the aircraft, and what was left of the plane was either buried in 12 x 7.3m crater, or scattered around it. All 25 people aboard were killed instantly. The initial investigation into this crash correctly identified the fact the aircraft suffered a rudder hard-over, but was unable to determine exactly why the rudder jammed, and for only 4th time in NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) history, the report released didn’t come to a final conclusion. In September 1994, another 737, USAir 427 crashed under almost identical circumstances, claiming the lives of a further 132 people (This crash would be so violent, that the accident site would be declared a biohazard for the first time in aviation history). It was now clear that the 737 had a serious design flaw in its rudder. And eventually, with exhaustive efforts and new tests, as well information gathered from another 737 that experienced a rudder hard-over, but managed to land (Eastwind Airlines 517), they were able to uncover the design flaw, and correct it; but tragically, not before 157 people were dead.

This is my latest jetliner replica, and it is of what I think is one of better looking 737 generations. Not quite as good as the Classic 737s, but I think better than NG and MAX 737s (But in my opinion, all 737s look cool). I particularly like the clam-shell style thrust reversers, and I am proud of the work I put into them. I had wanted to do a 737-200, but as my first decent jetliner replica was my 737-300, so I decided to do a 737 with some significant history, so I chose this aircraft. Like most of my builds, Activation groups are in the craft instructions.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to dedicate this build to the 157 people killed in the tragedies of United 585 and USAir 427, and my heart goes out to their family and friends, who lives where irreparably damaged. The final image I have shown in the upload is the wreckage of the plane, and as you can see, there is almost nothing left that is recognizable as a plane.