ORIGINAL: Montague
Is the 737 not as sensitive as some other planes? The fuse looks shorter than some others. This thread just got me to thinking of the times I've flown Southwest. They don't do assigned seats, and I've seen half-empty planes with everyone sitting right up front.
The 737's shorter fuselage makes it easier to keep in balance, but am unsure if it can remain within limits with half a pax load all sitting in front [&:]... When developing a weight and balance program, one of the initial assumptions is that people normally spread out randomly*, and will not "clump up" in a group, so if a half load was on the airplane, human nature would have them dispersed somewhat
MD80 series airplanes are "twitchier" on their CG limts due to the long fus... The price of doing 2x3 seating instead of 3x3 as done by Boeing in the 737s.
Best,
Jim
* FYI, when developing a weight and balance program, the seats are "loaded" mathematically using the window seats forward to aft, then adding the aisle seats, then the center seats. The process is repeated by "loading" the window seats aft to forward, then the aisle seats, then the center seats. The most restrictive condition is used to set the operator' CG limits.