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Comment by advisedwang | Hacker News Reader

> new single-aisle airplane

Does that mean it's not trying to be "another 737" but actually a truely new type?

They already did that, it’s called the 757 and nobody bought it. Maybe we’ll get a 757 MAX with MCAS to make it type compatible with the 737.

AFAIK the 757 frame is too heavy to be powered by the LEAP engines. Those planes were powered by a class of engine between the old 737 and 777 engines, and nobody makes them anymore because they're not in demand, so a 757 MAX is just not financially viable.

The article said Boeing is talking to Rolls Royce for the new plane. American Airlines used to have a fleet of 757s powered by Rolls Royce engines assembled in Montreal Canada. I used to work on those engines many many years ago.

You can use the most powerful LEAP engine on a lightened 757 “neo”, it’ll just be a complete dog like the A321 and not a rocket ship like the old one.

Just ‘cause I’m totally ignorant about this stuff: why is that?

The A321 is an elongated/bigger version of the A320. Similarly to the B737 - which also went through this process a few times (e.g. compare the B737-400 vs B737-600 vs B737-MAX) - it means the engines are moving a heavier&bigger plane.

The 757 was powered by rb211-535e4 which had about 40k pounds of thrust each.

https://www.rolls-royce.com/products-and-services/civil-aero...

The 737 MAX is powered by CFM LEAP which has about 30k pounds of thrust each.

https://www.cfmaeroengines.com/leap

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