SEATTLE - The 737 Boeing's been making since the 1960s is classified as a narrow-bodied airplane. In other words, it has only one aisle. In the 737's case that leaves three seats on either side. Since all of us have flown on these planes, those aisles get pretty plugged up with flight attendents and their drink trolleys and people trying to get to the bathrooms.

But a twin aisle 737 isn't out of the question. A drawing in a new Boeing patent application shows a 737 with two aisles, and a cross section of three seats between those aisles and two seats on either side against the windows. Is this the next 737 design?
T
he question is a good one, since Boeing is wrestling with the airplane's future. The original cross section of the 737 dates back to the mid-1960s. The airplane has gone through major upgrades with technology and engines but the passengers it's been mostly about interior improvements and length of the airplane's body.

Boeing is currently considering options for the future, ranging from hanging new, even more fuel efficient engines, or starting over with a clean sheet of paper designing a new jet possibly built out of composite.

The application filed on Aug. 12 is aimed at protecting earlier Boeing patents to build eliptical fuselage cross sections that are wider than they are tall, which would allow for that second aisle and additional seat.

A Boeing spokesman for the company's engineering and research organization says the drawing is designed to show patent examiners how the company would appply the elipitical idea to a smaller jet, and that the drawing is not that of a new 737.

Boeing is a company full of ideas, and many ideas don't come to fruition. Consider a 767 with a second upper deck toward the back of the plane. That idea didn't fly, but the thinking part eventually lead to the Boeing 777. Could a twin aisle 737 fare any better? The concept certainly seems plausible.

Is this what a new 737 could look like? | KING5.com | Seattle Business and Technology News