aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot ...

, fleet commonality is the economic and logistic benefits of operating a standardized

fleet Fleet may refer to: Vehicles *Fishing fleet *Naval fleet * Fleet vehicles, a pool of motor vehicles * Fleet Aircraft, the aircraft manufacturing company Places Canada * Fleet, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet England *The Fleet Lagoon, at Chesil Beac ...

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. ...

that share common parts, training requirements, or other characteristics.

Different types of commonality

Air France Airbus A300B2 1974 Fitzgerald

Commonality policies may be defined in a variety of ways, depending on the operator: * for civilian aircraft: ** By model, same generation (e.g. Boeing "Next Generation"

737-700 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a narrow-body aircraft powered by Twinjet, two jet engines and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third generation derivative of th ...

737-800 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a narrow-body aircraft powered by two jet engines and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third generation derivative of the Boeing ...

, and

737-900 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a narrow-body aircraft powered by two jet engines and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third generation derivative of the Boeing ...

) ** By model, different generations (e.g. Boeing's "Next Generation"

and

737 MAX The Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a narrow-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), a division of American company Boeing. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG) and competes with t ...

-7) ** By family (e.g. Boeing 737) ** Between families (e.g. deck, between Boeing

767 767 may refer to: * Boeing 767, a jet airliner * 767 (number) * AD 767, a year in the 8th century. * 767 BC, a year in the 8th century BC * Area code 767 Area code 767 is the local telephone area code of the Commonwealth of Dominica, within the ...

-400ER,

777 777 may refer to: * 777 (number), a number * AD 777, a year of the Julian calendar * 777 BC, a year in the 8th century BC * Boeing 777, a commercial jet airliner :* Boeing 777X, the newer generation of the Boeing 777. Art and entertainment A ...

and

737 737 most commonly refers to: * Boeing 737, an American narrow-body passenger airplane ** Boeing 737 Classic ** Boeing 737 MAX ** Boeing 737 Next Generation * AD 737, a year in the common era * 737 BC, a year * 737 (number), a number 737 may al ...

NG) ** By manufacturer (e.g.

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and ...

) ** By engine (e.g.

Rolls-Royce RB211 The Rolls-Royce RB211 is a British family of high-bypass turbofan engines made by Rolls-Royce. The engines are capable of generating of thrust. The RB211 engine was the first production three-spool engine, and turned Rolls-Royce from a sign ...

) ** Any combination of the above * for military aircraft, the same can be said: ** By model, same generation ** By model, different generations (e.g. General Dynamics

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful ...

A/B, multirole

C/D) ** By family (e.g. General Dynamics

) *Commonality can also be seen in engines : ** By family, same generation (e.g. RR Trent, GE T700) ** By family, different generations (e.g. CFM 56-2, -3, -5, -7 ) ** Between aircraft (Pratt & Whitney's F100 with the F-15 and F-16 fleetGeneral Electric, Pratt & Whitney Battle To Supply F-15K Engines
/ref>)

Examples for civilian aircraft

Airbus and Boeing have commonality in their products within and across families.

Airbus A330 and A340 families

The A330 and A340 share many common features. The same cockpit is shared between the A330 and A340, however the A340 controls four engines instead of two on the A330. The A330 and A340 share the same wings, nose, tail and horizontal stabilizers. The A340 features an extra bogie of landing gears under the belly to support extra weight. The A330-300 and A340-300 share the same fuselage and wings, however with the A340-300 featuring an extra bogie of landing gears under the belly, and powered by four engines instead of two.

Boeing 757 and 767 families

The 767-400ER shares common features with the 757/767 family of airplanes, including a common pilot type rating between the 757 and 767. This allows any pilot trained to fly one model to be qualified to fly the other model with minimal additional instruction. Compatibility with the 757/767 family means that operators can gain better access to the demanding medium-size market (200-300 seats) by matching the appropriate airplane to variable requirements. They can also improve operating efficiency through lower training requirements, greater flexibility in assigning flight crews, and reduced spares inventories.Boein

/ref>

Boeing 767-400ER, 777 and 737NG

The new 767-400ER flight deck makes the airplane easier to maintain and provides flexibility for operators to tailor the flight-deck equipment to their training needs. A new instrument panel and avionics package consolidate 67 different flight deck parts to 20, simplifying 767 maintenance and improving flight crew efficiency. On the instrument panel, the most notable change on the 767-400ER is the use of six large liquid-crystal displays in the same arrangement as the Boeing 777 and Next-Generation 737 flight decks. Pilots of these models receive similar information in a similar format. This significantly reduces training requirements to transition pilots of these other Boeing models to the 767-400ER.

Notes and references

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