Boeing Yellowstone Project

Passenger capacity of existing and future Boeing civil aircraft.

Yellowstone is a Boeing Commercial Airplanes project to replace its entire civil aircraft portfolio with advanced technology aircraft. New technologies to be introduced include composite aerostructures, more electrical systems (reduction of hydraulic systems), and more fuel-efficient turbofan engines (such as the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G Geared Turbofan, General Electric GEnx, the CFM International LEAP56, and the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000). The term "Yellowstone" refers to the technologies, while "Y1" through "Y3" refer to the actual aircraft.

The first of these projects, Y2, has entered service as the Boeing 787.

Yellowstone projects

Yellowstone is divided into three projects:

• Boeing Y1, to replace the Boeing 737 product line. Y1 covers the 100- to 200-passenger market, and is expected to be the second Yellowstone Project aircraft to be developed. Boeing submitted a patent application In November 2009, that was released to the public in August 2010, that envisions an elliptical composite fuselage, and likely signals the company's planning for the 737 successor. In early 2011, Boeing outlined plans for a 737 replacement that would arrive in 2020. But the development of the 737 replacement was pushed back with the decision to launch the 737 MAX, an updated and re-engined version of the 737 in August 2011.

• Boeing Y2, to replace the Boeing 767 product line. It may also replace the 777-200. Y2 initially referred to the highly efficient, more conventional, baseline aircraft for the Sonic Cruiser, which was project "Glacier". It has now been built as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and covers the 220- to 320-passenger market. It will compete with the Airbus A330, A340 and later A350 families.

• Boeing Y3, to replace the 777-300 and 747 product lines. Y3 covers the 300–600+ passenger market, and is expected to be the third Yellowstone Project aircraft to be developed. It will compete with the Airbus A380 family as well as the largest model of the A350 family, the A350-1000, scheduled to be introduced in 2015. In June 2010 it was reported that Emirates, which has a large fleet of 777s, was in discussions with Boeing about plans to develop a new airliner to replace the 777.

External links

• March 2001 Newsletter, Richard Aboulafia, March, 2001.
• "Future Airliners", Aerospaceweb.org, January 5, 2003. (refers to Yellowstone as the project name for the future Boeing 787)
• "Not if... but when", Flight International, July 6, 2005.
• "History & Development of the Boeing 737", b737.org.uk, October 23, 2005
• "Boeing's answer to the "superjumbo" takes off". The Independent. February 9, 2010. http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/boeings-answer-to-the-superjumbo-takes-off-1893971.html.