Country of origin:

United States of America

Description:

Commercial airliner

Power Plant:

Two 18,500 lbst BMW Rolls Royce BR715 turbofans

Specifications:

History:

Announced at the 1991 Paris Air Show, development of the prototype of this series began in late 1994 as the MD-95, the name being changed to Boeing 717 in January 1997 when the Douglas 100-seat program was adopted by Boeing. Aimed at the 80 to 120-seat market and, following the demise of Fokker, and the cancellation of the Aero International A1-70 Airjet family, the new design provided Boeing with a genuine 100-seat regional airliner. In configuration, the Boeing 717 was based on the Douglas DC-9-30 which first flew in August 1966. The design was developed over the years through the MD-80, MD-87, MD-90 etc and in 1994 it was decided the new aircraft would have BMW Rolls Royce BR715 high-bypass engines and, although looking similar to the DC-9, was a new design.

First flight of the prototype (N717XA) occurred on 2 September 1998, and it was followed by the second and third prototypes (N717XB and N717XC) on 26 October and 16 December 1998. The first production aircraft commenced services with AirTran in early 1999, certification being obtained in June that year. Variants available were: 717-100 – a proposed 80-seat variant: 717-200 – initial production version in basic (BGW) and high (HGW) gross weight variants; and the 717-300, a 130-seat variant.

The 717 had a crew of two on the flight deck and a typical two-class seating for 106 passengers in a five-abreast arrangement. Partners in the production of the aircraft included: Alenia (fuselage sections); Korean Air Lines Aerospace Division (nose structure and main passenger door/entry area); Hyundai Space and Aircraft Co (wings, in conjunction with Boeing Canada); BMW Rolls Royce (power plant); BF Goodrich (engine nacelles); Shin Maaywa Industries Ltd (horizontal tail surfaces and engine pylons); Fischer Advanced Composite Components GmbH (cabin furnishings); Andalucia Aerospacial (slats, landing gear components, aft pressure bulkhead); Israel Aircraft Industries SHL Servo Systems (undercarriage); AlliedSignal Aerospace (environmental controls system, wheels and brakes ); Honeywell Inc (flight guidance and avionics systems), Sundstrand Aerospace (electrical power generating system), and Auxiliary Power International Corp (APU). Final assembly of the aircraft occurred in Long Beach, California and the initial production rate was one aircraft per week.

The Douglas DC-9 series is well known to this area, having been operated for many years by Ansett and TAA in the airliner role, and IPEC in the freight role. Later Compass Airlines (No 2) operated three examples of the MD-82 (VH-LNJ – c/n 49383; VH-LNK – c/n 49423; and VH-LNL – c/n 49437) and two MD-83s (VH-LNH – c/n 49938 and VH-LNI – c/n 53121), these aircraft being registered to Southern Cross Airlines, but they returned overseas following the demise of that operator.

In early 2000 Impulse Airlines, which operated a fleet of Beech 99s, and later Beech 1900s on the east coast of Australia, imported five examples of the Boeing 717, the first three being Model 717-2K9s (VH-IMD – c/n 55055; VH-IMP – c/n 55054 ; and VH-LAX – c/n 55057).

However, Impulse was taken over by QantasLink / Impulse Airlines and further Model 717s were imported, the fleet eventually reaching 14 aircraft, and all aircraft being painted in Qantas colours. These included Model 717-2BD: VH-VQA (c/n 550001) and VH-VQB (c/n 550002); Model 717-200 VH-VQC (c/n 55151); Model 717-23S VH-VQD (c/n 55062 – ex VH-AFR) and VH-VQE (c/n 55063 – ex VH-SMH); Model 717-231 VH-VQF (c/n 55092); VH-VQG (c/n 55093); VH-VQH (c/n 5509); VH-VQI (c/n 55095); VH-VQJ (c/n 55096); and VH-VQK (c/n 55097). These entered service in June that year on regular commercial flights between the Australian capital cities.

On 1 December 2003 Qantas announced it was setting up a low-cost airline designed to provide cheap seats for holiday-makers in competition with Virgin Airlines. Named Jetstar, pending the arrival of the first of 23 Airbus A-320s for the new airline, the company commenced operations with the Boeing 717s in mid 2004, most of the Boeing 717s being re-painted in Jetstar colours. In mid 2005, as Jetstar’s fleet of A-320s came on line, eight of the Boeing 717s were slowly repainted in Qantas markings and transferred to QantasLink / Airlink. Operations were commenced by National Jet Systems on behalf of the company, the registrations of a number of the aircraft being changed, including Model 717-2CM VH-VQC to VH-NXC; Model 717-23SD VH-VQE to VH-NXE, VH-VQB to VH-NXB, VH-VQD to VH-NXD, VH-VQA to VH-NXF, VH-LAX to VH-NXG, VH-IMD to VH-NXH and VH-IMP to VH-NXI etc.

QantasLink commenced services with the Model 717 when VH-VQE operated from Perth to Port Hedland in Western Australia on 1 July 2005. One, VH-VQJ, was painted in an unusual colour scheme, with ‘Budget Rental Car’ painted on the port side and ‘Avis Rental Car’ on the starboard side in mid 2005. Another, VH-FQH, was painted initially in November 2005 in ‘LYNXjet’ colours with ‘Jetstar’ on the tail, but later was painted in a special Christmas / New Year colour scheme, with ‘Ho Ho Ho’ on the port side in white, and ‘Happy New Year’ on the starboard side.

Production of the Boeing 717 series concluded during 2006 after 156 aircraft had been completed.

Further registration changes occurred in early 2006 when Jetstar changed registrations of Model 717-231s VH-VQG, VH-VQH, VH-VQI and VH-VQJ to VH-YQG, VH-YQH, VH-YQI and VH-YQJ respectively.

In March 2007 VH-NXG, VH-NXH and VH-NXI were withdrawn from service and returned to their owner, Bavaria International Aircraft Leasing. In early 2011 Qantas announced it was obtaining two additional leased Boeing 717s for QantasLink services, and by late 2014 the company had 18 Model 717s in service, 13 of these being in single-class configuration, seating 125. They were operated mainly in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The other five carried 110 passengers, 12 in business class and 98 in economy, and these were operated between Hobart, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Adelaide.

In mid-2017 Qantas announced that Cobham Aviation Services would fly Boeing 717 aircraft on behalf of QantasLink for a further ten years under a new contract extension, Cobham having flown 717s for QantasLink since 2005. Heavy maintenance work was initially performed at its Adelaide base in South Australia but Qantas took back that work in 2015 when it established a Boeing 717-heavy maintenance base in Canberra, ACT. Qantas also announced it was looking to buy Model 717s it had on lease when those leases expired and was looking for further acquisitions.