Why do Americans say B7307 not B737?

#1

I’ve always asked this question when hearing an American talking about aviation and it’s always confused me for a few reasons. Americans saying “seven thirty seven” instead of “seven three seven” when talking about a Boeing 737. Its also done to the 747, 757, 767 and 787. In Europe where I’m from, we’d say “seven three seven” 90% of the time but someone with a lot of exposure to American aviation enthusiats might say “seven thirty seven”.

The first reason why I think this is weird as a European is because its an American company that designs and manufactures the aircraft. The company writes it as a 737 but says “seven thirty seven”. It might make a bit more sense if it was a foreign company and Americans said it wrong but its their own plane.

The second reason is that aviation is famous for going out of its way to make communication more clear and universal. Examples of this might be English being the universal language of aviation, saying “niner” instead of “nine” giving each letter a word etc. So for Americans to write an aircraft name one way and say it another is very unusual to me.

I’d really appreciate if anyone could give me an insight as to why this happens because its very difficult to find any meaningful information online.

#2

It’s known as the 737, which can be said “seven three seven” or “seven thirty seven”… not sure what the issue is?

Just different ways of saying the same thing.

Similar to how in the south US some people say “Y’all” instead of “You all”. They mean the same, just are said different.

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#3

I’ve seen 737, 738, 739 but haven’t seen a reference of 7307. Do you have some examples and/or sources?

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#4

you say seven thirty seven because that the way people were taught to say 737?

#5

Don’t know about you lot, but I say Seventy-Three-Seven 😈

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#6

That makes more sense, ‘seven thirty seven’ is the difference.

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#7

I really like your example with sourthern people you are 100% correct about that

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#8

Tsumia, now that’s a first 🤣

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#9

I thought it was “Seven hundred thirty seven” 🤔

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#10

In England in the UK, we call it a Boeing eight hundred minus sixty three.

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#11

I say both. It makes literally no difference really.

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#12

I usually say seven thirty seven. Just like seven twenty seven, seven fourty seven, seven fifty seven, and so on

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#13

I only got it now when someone told me I thought it was like 7-30-7 not 7-37. That makes much more sense

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#15

Poor grasp of the English lang…I joke of course, but I’ve never actually heard this before.

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#16

I just say it as I see it personally, so I call it a ‘seven-three-seven’ and so forth with all 3 digit Boeing aircraft and Airbus’.

A B-17 (which has been flying around locally recently) I call a ‘B-seventeen’… Don’t know why I say it as a full number here.

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#17

I say B-17 the same

You’d think if we say “B-seventeen” we should also say “Boeing seven hundred and thirty seven” 😂

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#18

I believe that Boeing (and Americans as a result) calling it a 7-30-7 or 7-40-7 etc. comes down to the way it sounds for marketing purposes. If you try saying both versions of B737 or B747 out loud, you will find that 7-30-7 sounds a lot mightier or exciting, which could be a marketing strategy Boeing decided to go for.

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#19

That’s makes sense. I thought they were saying 7-30-7 but i think it’s more like 7-37. I didn’t think about like that until I made this post

#20

I live in Europe, and I say Boeing seven thirty seven

Because: I split it up, I don’t add a additional number, so it would be 7-37

But I don’t say 37 as the normal way tho

#21

I do either, which ever starts to be said first