Boeing 737
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50 free Boeing 737 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Boeing 737 is the jet most people have flown on without ever thinking about it. First flown in the 1960s as a short-haul workhorse, it has been stretched, re-engined and reinvented through four generations, and well over ten thousand have been built. That long life has left it with a remarkable back catalogue of design quirks, record orders, military cousins and dramatic days in the air. This quiz covers the whole story: how the original was designed and who bought it first, the engines and odd engineering compromises that keep an old airframe competitive, the airlines that built their business on it, and the military and government versions that few passengers ever see. It also looks squarely at the accidents and emergencies that changed aviation safety, including the two crashes that grounded the MAX. The early questions suit anyone who has ever boarded a narrow-body jet and wondered what they were sitting in, while later ones reward plane spotters and aviation fans who know their variants. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches you something.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How do Boeing 737 fuselages built in Wichita, Kansas, reach the assembly line in Washington state?
By rail
By rail: the complete body of each 737 crosses half the country on a freight train. In 2014 a derailment in Montana sent several fuselages tumbling down a riverbank.
Q 02The unmarked 737s of Janet, a secretive US government airline in Las Vegas, fly workers to which famous site?
Area 51
Area 51 is the best-known stop for the red-striped jets, which also serve the Tonopah Test Range. The Janet nickname is said to come from the wife of a CIA officer who ran the base.
Q 03What happened to Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a Boeing 737 over Hawaii in 1988, before it landed safely on Maui?
The roof tore off
The roof tore off: an 18-foot section of the upper cabin peeled away at 24,000 feet. Poor maintenance and metal fatigue were blamed, and the captain could see blue sky where the ceiling had been.
Q 04Where did TACA Flight 110, a Boeing 737 that lost both engines in a thunderstorm near New Orleans, land safely?
On a grass levee
On a grass levee beside a canal, where the powerless jet glided down with only minor injuries aboard. After an engine change it took off again from a nearby road.
Q 05In which African city did GSG 9 commandos storm the hijacked Boeing 737 Landshut in 1977 and free the hostages?
Mogadishu
Mogadishu, Somalia, was the last stop for a holiday flight hijacked five days earlier on the way home from Mallorca. The raid freed all the passengers.
Q 06Which US agency bought the very first Boeing 737 ever built and kept it flying for three decades?
NASA
NASA took delivery of the prototype in 1973 and retired it in 2003. The first 737 now sits in Seattle's Museum of Flight, the last surviving 737-100.
Q 07Which European airline was the first outside America to launch a new Boeing jet when it introduced the 737?
Lufthansa
Lufthansa ordered 21 of the jets in 1965, after Boeing promised the project would not be cancelled. The German airline flew the type for almost half a century, retiring its last in 2016.
Q 08Why do the engines of the 737 Classic have a flattened underside, nicknamed the hamster pouch?
To clear the tarmac
To clear the tarmac: the 737 rides so low that the bigger CFM56 engine of the 1980s would not fit beneath the wing. Engineers moved its accessories to the sides and flattened the intake.
Q 09What do the dark circles visible on the belly of a Boeing 737 in flight turn out to be?
Uncovered tires
Uncovered tires: the 737's main gear folds into the belly without full doors, so the wheels stay in the airstream. Hub caps smooth them, and flying without the caps is forbidden.
Q 10Which emergency feature of many larger airliners has never been fitted to any Boeing 737?
A fuel dump system
A fuel dump system was never fitted: the first 737s were too small to need one, and adding it later would have cost too much weight. An overweight landing means an inspection before the jet flies again.
Q 11Which city beside Lake Washington is home to the main Boeing factory for 737 final assembly?
Renton
Renton's plant stands on land reclaimed when the lake was lowered in 1916, and rolled out the first 707 in 1957. New 737s make a short hop to Boeing Field in Seattle for painting.
Q 12Which European jet family overtook the Boeing 737 in 2019 as the most-ordered airliner in history?
Airbus A320
Airbus A320 orders passed the 737's in October 2019, while the MAX was grounded worldwide. The 737 held on to its lead in deliveries until 2025.
Q 13Which Dallas-based low-cost airline, long the 737's biggest operator, received the 5,000th example in 2006?
Southwest
Q 21Which engine maker built the JT8D turbofans that powered the original Boeing 737-100 and 737-200?
Pratt & Whitney
Pratt & Whitney adapted the JT8D from a military turbojet, the J52. Every 737 model launched since 1980 has used quieter, thriftier CFM engines instead.
Q 22CFM International, maker of 737 engines since the 1980s, pairs General Electric with a partner from which country?
France
France is home to Safran, formerly Snecma, which builds the fan and low-pressure turbine. The venture went five years without an order and was two weeks from being dissolved in 1979.
Q 23Where did the first Boeing 737 design sketches place the engines before Joe Sutter moved them under the wings?
At the tail
Southwest flies nothing but 737s, and was the launch customer for both the 737-500 and the 737-700. Its first 737-300 is now a museum piece in its home city.
Q 14Which European budget airline ordered the 737 MAX 200, a high-density version built to squeeze in up to 200 seats?
Ryanair
Ryanair first signed for the type in 2014 and later raised its order to 210 jets. Its cabins hold 197 seats, which takes an extra pair of exit doors.
Q 15Which airline's 737 MAX 9 lost a door plug minutes after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, in January 2024?
Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 landed safely with a hole in its side and only minor injuries aboard. Four bolts meant to hold the panel had never been refitted at the factory.
Q 16Into which icy river did Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737, plunge moments after takeoff in a 1982 snowstorm?
The Potomac
The Potomac closed over the jet after it struck Washington's 14th Street Bridge. A bystander, Lenny Skutnik, dived into the ice-choked water to pull a survivor ashore.
Q 17Which US Navy submarine-hunting jet, armed with torpedoes, is built on the airframe of the Boeing 737-800?
P-8 Poseidon
P-8 Poseidon crews took over from the propeller-driven P-3 Orion, in service since 1962. The jet carries its weapons in a bay behind the wing and also flies with India, Britain and Norway.
Q 18Which country's air force was the first customer for the E-7 Wedgetail, a Boeing 737 with a radar fin on its back?
Australia
Australia named the project after its native wedge-tailed eagle. The jet's first operational sortie was the 2014 search for missing Flight MH370.
Q 19The US Air Force's T-43, a Boeing 737-200 nicknamed the Flying Classroom, taught which aircrew specialists?
Navigators
Navigators learned their trade aboard the T-43, which crews shortened to Gator. The 1971 order came when 737 sales had collapsed, and it is credited with saving the program.
Q 20Which flight-control software on the 737 MAX, known by four letters, played a role in both fatal crashes?
MCAS
MCAS, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, pushed the nose down on faulty sensor data. Pilots had not been told it existed before the first crash.
At the tail, on the aft fuselage, was the early plan. Moving the engines under the wings lightened the structure and made room for six seats in a row.
Q 24What nickname is given to the small extra panes above the main windshield on older Boeing 737 cockpits?
Eyebrow windows
Eyebrow windows came from the 707 and gave crews a wider view. Pilots often stuffed them with newspaper to block the sun, and Boeing dropped them in 2004.
Q 25Boeing sold a 737-200 Unpaved Strip Kit, with a deflector on the nose gear, for remote runways surfaced with what?
Gravel
Gravel thrown up by the nose gear could wreck an engine, so the kit added a deflector and a vortex dissipator ahead of each intake. Arctic operators flew kitted jets into the 2020s.
Q 26Which prehistoric nickname do aviation fans give the original Boeing 737-100 and 737-200 models?
Jurassic
Jurassic is the joking label for the 1960s originals. Around fifty were in service in 2023, a high number for so early a jetliner.
Q 27Which US airline's wish for more seats led Boeing to stretch the first 737 design into the longer 737-200?
United
United ordered 40 of the stretched jets in April 1965 and put the first into service from Chicago to Grand Rapids. Airlines so preferred the longer model that only 30 of the short 737-100 were built.
Q 28Which curved sword gives its name to the split winglets fitted to many Boeing 737s from 2014?
Scimitar
Scimitar winglets came from Aviation Partners, the Seattle firm behind the earlier blended design. They trim a jet's thirst by up to 5.5%, against 3.3% for the older kind.
Q 29Instead of fly-by-wire electronics, what carries a pilot's commands to the control surfaces of a Boeing 737?
Steel cables
Steel cables run through the fuselage and wings to hydraulic boosters. If the hydraulics fail, the pilots' own muscle moves the elevators and ailerons through small tabs.
Q 30Which country's aviation regulator was the first to ground the Boeing 737 MAX, a day after the second fatal crash?
China
China acted on March 11, 2019, and it mattered: its airlines flew 96 of the jets, more than any other country's.