In a milestone in the development of the new Boeing 777X commercial airliner, the Federal Aviation Administration has authorized the start of a series of test flights necessary to obtain approval for the 777X to enter passenger service.
For these tests, FAA pilots and engineers will be on board the new large aircraft along with Boeing pilots and the flight test team.
They will see first-hand how a jet plane performs in a series of drags that are more severe than what a commercial airliner is used to encountering.
Boeing pilots took their first flight certification test Friday evening with FAA personnel on board. It left Boeing Field just after 6:00 p.m. and landed there again about two hours later after flying over the Washington and Oregon coasts.
The news is a big boost for Boeing. It should open new orders for the plane, whose sales have been stalled by years of delays in its development and the lack of progress in certifying it to fly passengers.
The news comes just a week before the Farnborough Air Show opens near London, where Reuters reported Boeing is expected to announce at least one new order for the 777X, for more than 20 planes from Korean Air.
Over the next year to 18 months, Boeing must put the plane through a series of tests that require the plane to fly on four separate test flights to demonstrate to the FAA that the 777X can be certified as meeting all safety regulations. .
Boeing has been flying the plane for more than four years and the FAA has insisted until now that more testing was needed. Now finally, it is ready to fly for credit.
The 777X is an updated and larger version of the all-metal 777 twinjet that debuted in the mid-1990s.
It has new engines and new wings made of carbon, so long that Boeing had to make 11-meter-long wings that can be folded so that the plane can fit through standard airport gates.
The first model, which is being tested, is the 777-9X, which will carry 426 passengers in two-class seats on long-haul international flights.
A slightly smaller model, the 777-8X, will follow later in both passenger and passenger variants.
Boeing has won 481 orders for the plane so far, with Gulf carrier Emirates the biggest customer, with more than 200 on order.
Since Airbus has discontinued its A380 superjumbo due to lack of sales, the 777X is now the largest new jet available to the airline.
In addition to the four test planes, Boeing has already built and maintains 22 777X jets, many of which are parked nose-to-tail on Paine Field’s runway with big blocks hanging from their wings in place of the engines.
Another six are in various stages of assembly in Everett, according to a reliable online list of production aircraft.
All those jets built before certification is achieved will have to be redesigned with any changes made during the flight test program before they can be delivered to the airlines.
Prolonged developmental delay
In the past, new Boeing airplanes were certified and cleared to enter service within 18 months of first flight. The first 777 was certified about a year after its first flight in 1994.
The 777X was unveiled at the Dubai Air Show in 2013, took flight in January 2020 and now looks set to be confirmed in the second half of 2025, an unexpectedly long time to develop another airliner. it is still there.
At this point, Boeing says it has completed the 777-9X test fleet “with more than 1,200 flights and 3,500 flight hours across a variety of terrain and climates.”
It must then repeat many of those tests for the FAA to review, including in-flight stalls, intentional crashes and take-offs at full weight and speed.
“Certification flight testing will continue to ensure aircraft safety, reliability and performance,” Boeing said in an email. “We appreciate the careful attention of our authorities.”
Honestly, the FAA has never been more difficult.
The development of the 777X was held up by an intense review of Boeing’s product controls that followed two fatal crashes of its 737 MAX planes in 2018 and 2019 that killed a combined 346 people.
FAA and European regulators wanted an extensive review and redesign of several parts of the 777X, including the critical avionics system that controls the movement of flight control surfaces on the jet’s wings and tail.
In a scathing letter three years ago, 17 months after the jet’s first flight, the FAA told Boeing it was ready. Boeing’s safety tests lacked data, software fixes were missing and Boeing was introducing new design changes.
The FAA then wrote that “its concern stems from the addition of recent changes; Boeing needs to ensure that the changes do not introduce new, unexpected errors. ”
Boeing was ordered to “close these loopholes” before requesting that the FAA allow the flight’s certification test to begin.
Three years later, the FAA is satisfied and Boeing can move forward.
In what has been a bleak year for Boeing, it’s a much-needed boost.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
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