Special delivery Take a ride on Ryanair’s 400th Boeing 737 as it is delivered from Boeing to Dublin BY DAN RALEY Ryanair 737-800 jetliner touched down in the late afternoon at Dublin Airport early last month, culminating a journey that proved more remarkable than it was routine. The flight represented a milestone moment—the Irish airline, a steady customer since 1999, was taking home its 400th Boeing 737-800. The Ryanair jetliner ended up in Europe just 33 days after it first entered Boeing’s Renton, Wash., factory, right on schedule and once more demonstrating the rapid movement of the 737 production line. The 400th 737-800 traveled nonstop from continent to continent, usually something only the bigger jets do. On this trip, the milestone airplane covered 4,300 nautical miles (4,950 miles, or 7,960 kilometers) in 9 hours, 24 minutes, passing just below the Arctic Circle and over sparsely populated northern Canada, Greenland and Iceland at 41,000 feet (12,500 meters). At times it was out of radar range, requiring the pilots to communicate their position the old-fashioned way—at designated points over high-frequency radio. Other than the pilots, the only passengers were a photographer and writer for Boeing Frontiers magazine. Ryanair pilot Brendan Davis holds A MAY 2016 | 39
Frontiers May 2016 Issue
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