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Old 31st Jul 2019, 23:45
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WHBM
 
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Originally Posted by dixi188
I believe at the time all commercial aircraft in the USA, over 80,000 lbs max weight, had to have a flight engineer.
This is why the BAC 1-11 series 400 that American Airlines bought was certified at 80,000 lbs MTOW, and thus two crew, rather than the Identical 300 series which was 87,000 lbs MTOW.
The rules must have changed when the Boeing 737 and DC9 came along
Indeed. The initial rule came in the late 1950s when a modification to the DC-6, which were dropping down to secondary operators, was to reconfig the flight deck for two rather than three crew operation. The DC6 was a complex aircraft of its time, and the FAA brought out the rule to stop US operators putting in the mod. The DC6 had an MTOW of about 92,000lb but could still be economical on shorter stages, the sort of work in prospect, at about 85,000.

The One-Eleven 400 was for American Airlines, but a number of other US carriers (Braniff; Mohawk) had already put the previous model One-Eleven 200 into service under the weight limit as well, but these had a lesser fuel capacity and thus range than what American wanted; ironically American then never ran them on the longer flights they could do, and a 200 series would have suited them fine.

The rule was rescinded in the mid-1960s, principally because of the DC9, which offered an initial version that came in just under the limit but was obviously a much easier two-crew aircraft than a four-engine piston DC6. The DC9 immediately progressed to above the old limit. This was a couple of years before the 737 came along, but this aircraft was impacted by a separate issue with United Airlines which was a union matter rather than an FAA requirement, and led to early United 737s having three crew. The DC9 flight deck had no space for a third permanent crew member, whereas the 737, a fuselage and flight deck derivative of the 707, did so.
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