Boeing patents twin-aisle design for under-200-seat aircraft Dateline: Wednesday January 26, 2005 Boeing is set to revolutionize the regional jet sector, at least on paper. Late last month, the commercial aircraft manufacturer received a patent titled "Twin Aisle Small Airplane" for a uniquely configured vehicle that the company claims will eliminate the bane of other jets in the less-than-200-seat category: A single aisle. Looking suspiciously like a scaled-down version of the military C-17, the widebody features a cabin with a 2-3-2 configuration and more width than height. Mithra Sankrithi, a manager in Boeing's Commercial Airplanes Product Development, Configuration and Engineering Analysis group, is listed as inventor on the patent, which was submitted on Oct. 2, 2001, and approved on Dec. 28, 2004. The emergence of a fresh approach to smaller aircraft, coming just weeks before Boeing's decision to stop production of the 717 (ATWOnline, Jan. 17), begs the question of whether the company might have something in mind to take the 717's place. Not so, says the manufacturer. "There is no significant activity at Boeing in supporting this configuration at this time," a spokesperson said, adding that it "is one of many concepts" the company has developed. "The filing of a patent for a new airplane configuration protects the concepts developed by Boeing for possible future use," he added. Actually, this is not the first time Boeing has studied a widebody jet in this size class. During the mid-1980s as Airbus was developing the A320, Boeing marketed a concept called the 7J7, a twin-aisle, 150-seat jet that would have been powered by a propfan. The aircraft never left the drawing board, however, and Boeing subsequently developed the 737NG family. In the patent application, Sankrithi claims the new aircraft configuration can deliver "the comfort typically reserved for larger aircraft" while at the same time minimizing drag, weight penalties, fuel burn and "economic penalties."--John Croft Roger EWROPS