Results tagged “777”

"We're taking the -1000 very seriously," said Albaugh, "We're going to put our assessment on when that plane can be available. We'll take a hard look on how long it will take them to go up in rate. Whether or not that is incremental improvements or a significant derivative [for the 777] it remains to be seen."

In the near-term, said Boeing vice president of business development, Nicole Piasecki, the airframer is evaluating a series of incremental updates dubbed the 777+, which include extending the wingspan of the 777, along with adding avionics enhancements, similar to that of the 747-8, providing additional capability to the flight deck for the crew without changing the display area.

The 777+ marks a return to the forefront of the extended wingspan option after being shelved in 2010 as the company explored other options for the long-range widebody. At the time of its evaluation, the extended wing could have been available as early as the fourth quarter of 2012, said company sources. 

Industry and company sources also indicate structural modifications are being evaluated to more comfortably accommodate 10-abreast seating in economy class. 

Further, Boeing and General Electric are exploring ways to introduce GEnx engine technology into the GE90, which is exclusively available on the 777 family.

"What we'll do on the 777 is continue to improve airplane we have," said James Albaugh, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO, "But we also have some major upgrades we could do in the event that we have to respond to a move by the competition."

In the longer term, Boeing vice president of sales Marlin Dailey, says longer-term improvements to the 777 including examining the "up-gauging" or stretching the fuselage, though the conceptual 777-9X and 777-8X, available early next decade.

Industry sources said the -9X would be an additional stretch to the 777-300ER, while the -8X would be an shrink of the 365-seat jet.

Conceptually the 777-8X and -9X would allow Boeing to span the products between the conceptual 290 to 330-seat 787-10X and 467-seat 747-8.

The 93,000lb Trent XWB engine, recently called "certainly sufficient" to meet the mission requirements of the 350-seat A350-1000, appears set to get a 5000lb thrust boost to better compete with Boeing's 777-300ER. That jump to 98,000lbs - which Steven Udvar-Hazy said was necessary to meet its goals - is aimed at increasing the payload range capability of the -1000 another 500nm from 7,990nm to 8,490nm. Yet, even if the new Trent XWB is only designed to meet the near-8,000nm mission, then the powerplant may begin to accelerate Boeing's -300ER upgrades, and could pose a larger challenge to the 777 family.

While the development of the new larger 98,000lb Trent XWB will certainly push the late-2015 EIS well to the right, even before any A350-900 delays are made official, the new engine gives Boeing some clarity on how to respond to the design changes.

However, understanding the foundations of Airbus's incremental "DNA" this new (and costly) engine is not a one-off to compete at 350-seats. The Trent XWB+ (or whatever it will be dubbed) is Airbus's answer for not just the -300ER market, but the ultra-long range -200LR at 301-seats, and more even more importantly the highly successful 777F.

The A350-1000 engine was already set to power both the A350-900R and A350-900F, so even with a five year slip to 2020, the -1000 gets Airbus into the long-range 350-seat market faster than Boeing got to the -300ER after the 777-200's 1995 entry into service. In no uncertain terms, Airbus is taking a page from Boeing's own playbook in the same way that the General Electric GE90-110 and -115 cover the 777F, -200LR and -300ER. 

Though, the new engine also presents increased risk for the A350-1000. Boeing, by comparison, moved the simple fuselage stretch of 33ft 3in first to the 777-300, then evolved once again to the 777-300ER's updated airframe and GE90-115BL engines. The much maligned "Derivatives R Us" phase of Boeing's history in the late 1990s has yielded its current cash crop of product. 

The middle step to the -300, which was a basic stretch of the 777-200ER's airframe, allowed Boeing to significantly de-risk the -300ER's development by better understanding the airframe's capability before optimizing it for the longer missions. Make no mistake, this engine looks to be readying a full assault against the 777 program.