Boeing rolls out first 737 Max

Boeing on Tuesday rolled out its first 737 Max, the next generation of its best-selling airplane and a linchpin in Spirit AeroSystems’ backlog.

The airplane, which is destined for Southwest Airlines after flight testing, was rolled out to media and employees at the company’s Renton, Wash., assembly plant.

Seventy percent of the first Max — and all Boeing 737s including the fuselage — was manufactured by Spirit AeroSystems and delivered to Boeing in August.

According to Boeing’s website, the company has 2,955 orders from 60 customers for the Max, which represents the newest generation of the airplane that first entered service in 1968 for German airline Lufthansa.

The Max and its forerunner, the 737 Next Generation, provide a significant amount of work for Spirit’s 11,000 Wichita employees and its plant on South Oliver.

In the first nine months of 2015, the company delivered 389 Boeing 737 Next Generation and Max shipsets — one shipset comprises the fuselage and other parts Spirit builds for one 737 — compared with 97 Boeing 787 shipsets, its second-biggest program in Wichita.

The 737 Max that rolled out Tuesday is expected to make its first flight early next year, and, following flight testing, be delivered to Southwest in the third quarter of 2017. Southwest has 200 orders for the Max and is the airplane’s launch customer.

Boeing said the Max will have better fuel efficiency, reliability and passenger appeal. It claims that the airplane will have 20 percent lower fuel use than the first Next-Generation 737s, and the Max’s operating costs will be 8 percent per seat less than the Airbus A320neo, the 737’s primary competitor.

The Max’s roll-out ceremony was closed to the public and free of the spectacle associated with past roll-outs such as for the 787 Dreamliner, an industry expert noted.

George Hamlin, a former aerospace and airline executive who is now president of Hamlin Transportation Consulting, said the low-key event was “the first major development of a model that I can recall being rolled out privately.”

Hamlin attributed that to Boeing’s focus on sticking to and reaching an internal timeline it set for itself four years ago, and after failing to hit similar targets on the 787 and 747-8.

“It’s saying to the world: ‘We’re back,’ ” Hamlin said. “It’s a marker to say we’re back to where we can meet our internal schedule and get development done economically and efficiently.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 12:05 PM with the headline "Boeing rolls out first 737 Max."