GE-90 engine as seen on the current Boeing 777-300ER. Photo by Brandon Farris.
Last week, the Boeing 777X took a major step towards becoming a reality as Boeing and General Electric (GE) made an announcement that they would be working together in studies about the new aircraft.
At this point, GE is expected to be the only provider of an engine for the 777X, just as they are currently with the 777-300ER and 200LR variants.
“This decision to work with GE going forward reflects the best match to the development program, schedule and airplane performance,” said Bob Feldmann, vice president and general manager, 777X Development, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “We are studying airplane improvements that will extend today’s 777 efficiencies and reliability for the next two decades or longer, and the engines are a significant part of that effort. Our focus is on providing the most competitive offering to our customers in the large twin aisle market.”
The 777 is an ultra-long haul aircraft for Boeing that many have deemed killed the future need for the 747-8I and eliminated the Airbus A340 program. The 777 is able to hold about as many passengers as the 747-8 and A340, but is able to efficiently operate on only two engines cutting down weight and cost.
Emirates Airline Boeing 777-200LR with GE-90 engines. Photo by Brandon Farris.
The development work on the next-generation 777 continues and includes airline customers from around the world. “We have had strong and productive engagement with a broad set of customers in the marketplace to understand their future needs. We are pleased with where we are in the process,” Feldmann said. “We are aggressively moving forward on our plan and will continue to refine requirements with customers.”
The next steps for the 777X is get a final nod of go ahead from the Boeing Board of Directors and probably the easiest step in finding a launch customer. Rumor has it that Emirates will likely be that since they fly over 10% of all 777’s made to date and are the largest customer of the aircraft, but Lufthansa is also another potential.
With the difficulties of the totally re-vamped 787 Dreamliner program, it is more likely that the 777X will be more of an evolution, like the 737MAX is to the 737NG.
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This story written by…Brandon Farris, Correspondent. Brandon is an avid aviation geek based in Seattle. He got started in Photography and Reporting back in 2010. He loves to travel where ever he has to to cover the story and try to get the best darn shot possible. |
the engineers and managers who designed and produced the 777 and 737NG are retired, and the 787 was a abomination by the young lions now ruining the name of boeing.
so do what degree of confidence do you believe that the new breed will not screw the pooch on the 777X?
it is obvious by their posturing on the battery problem that they think the FAA will just roll over again and let them fly an unsafe airplane.
Hey Wuzafan,
I am guessing there were folks like you with the Boeing 247, the 707 and the 747. There are always risks with taking the next leap in technology.
Can you say now that the 247, the 707, the 747 were all mistakes? Let’s talk in about ten years and see how things go :).
David
you don’t think that the 777 was not a giant leap for boeing? a large twin, over 500,000 lbs, requiring engines with thrust never imagined? yet, the overall effort came done on time, somewhat over budget-not the engineers fault, but mullalys. here was an airplane that was not only to crush the A340 series, but to encroach on the hallowed 747 series. you cant be serious, when a fiasco like the 87 is a cardboard rollout, lies that it would fly in 3 months, etc, then how many years later? no, all of the original boeing commercial jets had their birth pangs, heck, the 07 had 3 different body diameters, 2 1/2 wings, yet they never put a jet into service that could self combust.
Respectfully I have to disagree, it was, but with every new type of aircraft you are always going to take a risk. The 777X will be easy cause it is based on the 777. Similar to how the 747-8 was flawless for the most part, it is just update to a nearly perfect design with advancements.
The 787 is completely new and industry leading changes to the design, to try and say that Boeing hasn’t learned things from it is very inaccurate, look at how many things that Boeing has already said it is changing on the -9, from less out sourcing to other changes that it has just learned from this process. Boeing will overcome this and make an even better airplane out of it, but there is no need to bash the aircraft. It is safe and I will say with confidence I will not have second thoughts about getting on it and will in fact be getting on one as soon as possible.
you miss the whole, main , point. 1st, the real Boeing would never have released the 87 into service with a battery it did not know what caused the fires. 2ndly, the young engineers who came up with the 87 design (separate from the bad managers who forced an impossible schedule on them, and then outsourced the production) set their inexperience and priorities on the wrong things. so the basic 87 is poorly designed.the lack of time in the schedule to properly R&D and test teh new technologies, including teh composite structure and how to model it, ended up with an un proven and risky plane, which never should have been put into service. didnt the 3 odd year delay since rollout tell you anything?
before you so galantly fly on that pig, please take out a flight insurance policy for your wife and kids.
This is again where I have to disagree, Boeing flew a 1500 hour test program inflight along with a couple thousand ground test hours and never once saw this issue come up, the fire issue it had in the test program was due to a tool being left behind creating FOD that lit it up. It is hard to say that this should have been found in testing when they weren’t able to create it.
Also the issue with the original delays was that they decided to build the aircraft from around the world. It is hard to bring a plane together when it is being built in different spots, however that issue has been fixed now.
Normally I do not learn article on blogs, however I wish to say that this write-up very compelled me to check out and do so!