Originally Posted by
Excargodog
My read is that they got caught with their pants down by the NEO and needed to quickly put lipstick on a 53 year old pig. They needed a clean sheet design, or better yet, the start of a type-family which Boeing sort of pioneered with the
757/767 42 years ago then dropped with follow on aircraft.
No disagreement there, but I also read a lot of effort was put into to the design to keep the feds from requiring differences training. I think it was southwest that had some sort of clause about it in their purchase agreement.