a + the + n.(pl.), right?

[smet777]

Dear friends,
I've come to a sentence, which confuses me quite a lot:

The U.S. military already flies Global Hawk drones, which are nearly the size of a the widely-used Boeing 737 passenger jets. And military data shows that drone flights crash less often than piloted flights, Cummings said. ​

Please help explain if it exists.
The sentence is taken from the following website:

https://money.cnn.com/2015/03/27/news/companies/pilotless-passenger-planes/index.html
Thanks a lot.
Maxwell CN/SHA

 

[heypresto]

It's a typo/error, and should read ' . . . the size of the widely-used . . . '. The 'a' should't be there.

I suspect the writer was going to say ' . . . the size of a Boeing 737 . . . ', and then added 'widely-used' (which requires 'the'), but forgot to delete the 'a'.

 

[anthox]

This is definitely a typo, should be "the."

 

[smet777]

It's a typo/error, and should read ' . . . the size of the widely-used . . . '. The 'a' should't be there.

I suspect the writer was going to say ' . . . the size of a Boeing 737 . . . ', and then added 'widely-used' (which requires 'the'), but forgot to delete the 'a'.

Got it. Thank you very much indeed for your prompt reply.

 

[smet777]

This is definitely a typo, should be "the."

You've made it quite clear. Thanks a lot.

 

[kentix]

I agree with heypresto. The s also needs to be removed from jets.

...which are nearly the size of the widely-used Boeing 737 passenger jet.

It refers to a class of things (a specific type of jet) so the s should be omitted.

 

[smet777]

I agree with heypresto. The s also needs to be removed from jets.

...which are nearly the size of the widely-used Boeing 737 passenger jet.

It refers to a class of things (a specific type of jet) so the s should be omitted.

Agree. Thanks a lot.