Background Information.

The Boeing 767 was an American wide-body aircraft developed and manufactured by the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company. It was launched as the ‘Boeing 7X7’ program on July 14, 1978. The prototype first flew on September 26, 1981 and it was certified on July 30, 1982.

The original 767-200 entered service on September 08, 1982 with United Airlines, and the extended-range Boeing 767-200ER in 1984. It was stretched into the 767-300 in October 1986. This in-turn was followed by the Boeing 767-300ER in 1988 which was the most popular variant. The 767-300F, a production all-freighter version, debuted in October 1995. It was stretched again into the 767-400ER from September 2000.

To complement the larger Boeing 747, it had a seven-abreast seating cross-section, and accommodated the smaller LD2 ULD cargo containers in the belly hold. The 767 was Boeing's first wide-body twin-jet, powered by the General Electric CF-6, the Rolls-Royce RB211 or the Pratt & Whitney JT9D turbo-fan engines. The P&W JT9D engines were eventually replaced by the PW4000 engines.

The aircraft had a conventional tail and a supercritical wing for reduced aerodynamic drag. Its two-crew ‘glass cockpit’, a first for a Boeing airliner, was developed jointly for the Boeing 757, which was a narrow-bofy aircraft, thus allowing a common pilot ‘type-rating’.

Studies for a higher-capacity 767 in 1986 led Boeing to develop the larger Boeing 777 twinjet which was introduced in June 1995.

The 159-foot-long (48.5 m) 767-200 typically accommodated 216 passengers over a distance of 3,900 nautical miles [nmi] (7,200 km; 3,566 mi), while the 767-200ER accommodated some 181 passengers over a 6,590 nmi (12,200 km; 7,580 mi) range. The 180-foot-long (54.9 m) 767-300 typically accommodated  269 passengers over 3,900 nmi (7,200 km; 4,500 mi), while the 767-300ER accommodated  218 passengers over a 5,980 nmi (11,070 km; 6,880 mi) distance.

The 767-300F could haul 116,000 lb (52.7 t) over 3,225 nmi (6,025 km; 3,711 mi), while the 201.3-foot-long (61.37 m) 767-400ER typically accommodated 245 passengers over 5,625 nmi (10,415 km; 6,473 mi) distance. Military derivatives included the E-767 for surveillance work and the KC-767 and KC-46 aerial tankers.

The aircraft was initially marketed for trans-continental routes following the loosening of ETOPS rules starting in 1985, that allowed aircraft to operate trans-Atlantic flight.

A total of 742 of these aircraft were in service by July 2018, with Delta Air Lines being the largest operator with 77 aircraft in its fleet. As of May 2023, Boeing had received 1,392 orders from 74 customers, of which 1,276 aircraft had been delivered, while the remaining orders were for cargo or tanker variants.

Competitors have included the Airbus A300, the A310 and the A330-200 aircraft. The Boeing 767’s successor, the Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliner’ entered service in 2011.