The humble narrowbody jet aircraft. Technically entering service in 1958 with Boeing’s 707, the narrowbody has become the backbone of commercial aviation.

This week, we look at the families of narrowbody aircraft, tabulating total production numbers over time. Our go-to fleet data provider, ch-aviation, has data back to 1963, allowing us to dive into the histories of these aircraft. From there, it takes only one weekend of writing code to bring this data to life in animation.

Unfortunately, the medium of email and PDF research reports does not allow for animation (don’t get me started on GIFs), so if you want to watch the lines move, you’ll have to follow the link below. But we’ll still have plenty to talk about below.

This chart was built combining data from ch-aviation by aircraft family, rather than variants. Why families? Because it becomes an indiscernible mess of spaghetti lines, otherwise. We tried.

You’ll also see some families missing. F28/F100, BAe-146, VC-10, BAC-111. Forgive us for needing to draw the line somewhere to avoid the spaghetti. Also notably absent are any Illyushin, Tupolev, Superjet, or Comac aircraft. Again: spaghetti - and western bias - but mostly spaghetti. (It also allows us to save those for later animations, amortizing the time spent building this monster.)

By 1970, the race to build the narrowbody jets was on.

Fun fact: The 747 first flew in 1969, making this the first time the idea of a narrowbody jet was introduced. Prior to this, they just called them jets.

The duopoly was off to a quick start, following a few decades of piston aircraft near-duopoly. The 707 introduced the industry to the idea of turbojet aircraft, followed closely by the DC-8. It makes sense that the turbojet aircraft technology would first be used on long-haul flying, where the full advantage of the newly discovered speed could be found. But, it wasn’t long before airlines and passengers were asking for the new jets for short-haul flights, as well.

The short-haul narrowbody was born with the 7727 - long hailed the most beautiful of the commercial aircraft; a distinction locked in history and entirely undebatable. Yet, it wasn’t long before Douglas responded with the DC-9. And respond they did.

The DC-9 sold quickly, offering a smaller size, lower costs, and shorter segments. Boeing responded by building another short-haul narrowbody, named the 737. (Remember that name. It’ll come up later. Much later.)

In 1970, the narrowbody dominance was set by the 727, challenged by the DC-9, and supplemented by the 737. The long-term landscape was set. Nothing material would change for the next 55 years…

Of course, that didn’t turn out to be true at all. By the early 1980s, the 737 had surpassed the DC-9 in deliveries, on its way to eventually surpass even the mighty 727.

We’re counting the MD-80 as a different family from the DC-9, which we find debatable, yet fair. But by 1990, the dominance of the 737 was not as obvious if you consider the DC-9 and MD-80 as the combined competitor.

With the cessation of 727 deliveries, Boeing introduced the 757. The reason was simple: Boeing needed a larger narrowbody replacement for the 727, and it would be silly to stretch the 737 that far. Could you even imagine?

By 1990, a small third player emerged on the scene with the A320. It’s the small blue line at the bottom. Don’t worry, it’s not important.

It only took another few years for the industry to realize that the not-important French A320 wasn’t just another Mercure. By 2000, the duopoly was set. The 737 dominated and was well into its third iteration with the Next Generation platform. The A320 family surpassed the out-of-production, now-Boeing-owned MD-80, and the 757 fit into its largely North American niche.

The start of the 21st century also introduced a new small narrowbody as a legacy of the DC-9 line. Originally conceived as the MD-95, Boeing named it the 717. Don’t worry, it’s not important (really this time).

The arrival of the EJet quickly surpassed the total deliveries of the 717 in 2006. We’re counting the EJet as a narrowbody, crediting the family for spanning the traditional RJ/narrowbody divide between the E170, E175, E190, and E195.

By 2010, the true super-duopoly could no longer be dismissed. It would be the 737 vs the A320. In only a few short years, these two programs would enter another generation with a re-engining program for both. It would be perfect. Smooth entry into service. Nothing to worry about.

Except, of course, it wasn’t perfect, and yet here we are. 2025.

Airbus has acquired the C Series and given it the unoriginal A220 title, bringing the first new narrowbody family since the EJets. But the utter dominance of the A320 and 737 is what stands out in 2025. While the duopoly has been around for 20 years, it has evolved into a super-duopoly.

Even though the delivery numbers are similar between the two families, the A320 maintains a higher production rate and has surpassed the 737 as the most produced narrowbody.

As promised, the animated version is available below.

Turning massive amounts of data into visualizations is challenging. Building our own code libraries and animating those has been on a whole different level.

We are pushing ourselves to see how we can best tell the narratives of what is happening in the aviation industry. It takes time - not 62 years, but sometimes it feels like it.

Other charts from this week

Embraer just won an order for 45 E195-E2s from SAS. We showcased the network of SAS’s current E195 fleet in this post.

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