Boeing 717

The 717 story begins long before Boeing entered the picture. In February 1983 McDonnell Douglas unveiled a study called the DC-9-90, a shortened version intended to fill the gap the DC-9-30 was leaving as production shifted towards larger models. The recession of the early 1980s shelved the project, and when the company eventually built a smaller derivative of the MD-80 it chose the MD-87, an aircraft whose maximum take-off weight and thrust were too high to compete with the new hundred-seaters. In 1991 the idea returned under the name MD-87-105 and, at that year's Paris Air Show, was formally announced as the MD-95, the number reflecting the year deliveries were then expected to begin.

The design settled in early 1994 very close to the original DC-9-30, with the same fuselage length and the original wingspan restored. On 23 February 1994 the BMW Rolls-Royce BR700 was selected as the sole powerplant, and that July the board approved offering the aircraft for sale. For nearly two years ValuJet was the only customer, having signed in October 1995 for fifty firm aircraft and fifty options. After the August 1997 merger Boeing kept the programme alive under a new badge. Assembly of the first aircraft began in May 1997, the roll-out ceremony took place on 10 June 1998 and the maiden flight followed on 2 September 1998. FAA certification came on 1 September 1999, and commercial service started on 12 October 1999 with AirTran Airways between Atlanta and Washington Dulles.

Sales never took off. After nineteen orders in 2000 and just six in 2001, Boeing reviewed the type's future following the traffic slump that came after the September 2001 attacks, but decided to continue; in 2002 it booked thirty-two orders and handed the hundredth aircraft to AirTran on 18 June that year. Competition from Bombardier and Embraer regional jets, and the loss of an Air Canada contract in December 2003, sealed its fate. On 14 January 2005 Boeing announced that production would end once the outstanding backlog was met. The 156th and final airframe rolled off the line in April 2006, and the last two aircraft were delivered to Midwest Airlines and AirTran on 23 May 2006. It was the final commercial aeroplane built at Boeing's Long Beach facility in southern California.

The 717 passed from operator to operator as carriers failed or restructured: American Airlines retired its fleet in 2003, Germanwings in 2005, Bangkok Airways, Midwest and Olympic in 2009, Spanair in 2011. AirTran sold its aircraft to Delta Air Lines after merging with Southwest in 2014. Volotea, the last European operator, retired its final example in January 2021, and QantasLink closed the chapter outside the United States in 2024.