Originally Posted by
tintin939
I know that if the narrow body tends to become very long, it may require a long heavy landing gear in order to permit the desired rotation angle on takeoff without scraping the rear end of the fuselage on the runway. This landing gear problem is alleviated by the shorter fuselage offered by the wide body. Are there any other factors that prevent engineers from designing aircraft longer? Maybe limited size of vertical and horizontal stabilizers affecting longitudinal stability?
It sounds like you're on the right track with the "longer vs. wider" design problem. If you use the current 737-900 narrow body as an example, Boeing has stretched it to the point that take off and landing speeds are unusually high to avoid tail strikes during take off and landing (the higher the speed, the lower the AOA, which in turn lowers the deck angle). The higher speeds reduce the stopping performance for rejected takeoffs, and increase landing distance, or both.
Aircraft are designed around specific routes, so range and payload play heavily into the design process.
I think you'll find this book interesting, read the article on page 64:
https://books.google.com/books?id=N4...page&q&f=false