I understand that the most complicated electrical system ever was the Bristol Britannia. I flew that back in the very early 70's and the 1-11 in the 80's. The ARB technical exam was a nightmare on the Brit. The 1-11 was simple in comparison. It was the wiffle tree that got me on the 1-11.:ugh:

Not really, Forget, more to the point the unions that forced it upon their hapless managements did, I would say. It was merely the airborne equivalent of the fireman, or "second man", rostered by BR on diesels where there was no fire to tend, but none the less he had a seat, a windscreen wiper, and an oven to heat the pies in!

Surely the Lufthansa 737-100s, the first built, had a Flight Engineers console. There are several references to this but I can't find a photo.

Some early US 737-200 users (United, Western, Piedmont) did initially have the "seat with nothing to do" arrangement which was a union thing.

Just 30 series 100's were built, with 22 going to Lufthansa, 5 for Malaysia (Singapore) Airlines and 2 for Avianca.

Interesting. I often flew on the flight deck of MSA's 737s. I thought they were 200s - but they had only two crew. I'm sure there was never a Flight Engineer's console on any 737.

PS. ChitterneFlyer, disregard Krakaprat.

Engineering Handbook One Eleven received
 

a big thank you to all of you PPRunners for the information I gathered on the subject on behalf of that lady friend

the handbook came in the mail this morning...

happy landings everybody !