Boeing 777

The Boeing 777 is a family of wide-body twin-engine commercial jet aircraft with variants for both passenger and cargo transportation. The 777 was first flown on June 12, 1994, and commercial service commenced on June 7, 1995. It is the world’s largest two-engine jet (twin jet), and more than 1,200 777s were in operation in the early 2020s.

The 777 was the first aircraft to be designed entirely by using a computer, and it was the first completely new commercial jet aircraft developed by the Boeing Company in more than a decade. It followed the medium-range narrow-body 757 and the medium-to-long-range wide-body 767, which Boeing designed in tandem and introduced into commercial service in the early 1980s.

Development and specifications

For the design of the 777, Boeing employed a “working together” concept, with input from eight major world airlines in the design process. Initial meetings began in 1990. The product was thus a market-driven design. It filled a size and range gap in Boeing’s commercial airliner family, with the benefits of higher passenger capacity than that of the twin-engine 767 and lower operating costs, including better fuel efficiency, than those of the quad-engine wide-body 747. In October 1990 United Airlines placed the first order for the 777—128 units worth some $22 billion. At the time, United’s order was the largest ever for commercial aircraft.

The Boeing 777 was designed by using CATIA, a three-dimensional design technology that incorporated digital design, engineering, and manufacturing. This technology allowed the aircraft to be assembled virtually via computer, avoiding the costly time-consuming process of creating physical mock-ups.

The 777 is the first commercial American-made plane to use a fly-by-wire flight control system, in which pilots control rudders and flaps electronically. Compared to conventional manual hydraulic controls, fly-by-wire technology reduces the aircraft’s weight, simplifies its assembly, and requires less maintenance. Development of the 777 was also marked by state-of-the-art materials engineering applications, employing aluminum and titanium alloys as well as toughened polymeric composites, again providing weight and cost benefits in the aircraft’s design and construction. The 777 uses turbofan engines from suppliers General Electric, Rolls-Royce, and Pratt & Whitney, and these engines make the 777-300ER variant the quietest aircraft in its class.

Flexible configurations for passenger cabins were among the needs expressed by airlines that were part of the “working together” team, and they are today a trademark of the 777. Cabins were designed with flexibility zones and easily removable components, allowing for configuration changes in a fraction of the time required for other aircraft.

First flight and deliveries

By the time manufacturing of the 777 began in 1993 at Boeing’s factory in Everett, Washington, the manufacturer had received 118 orders for the aircraft from 10 airlines. A prototype was released in April 1994, and the first flight of a 777 was on June 12, 1994, marking the beginning of an 11-month test program. United Airlines received its first delivery on June 7, 1995, and the aircraft entered commercial service with the airline on that date, flying from London’s Heathrow Airport to Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C.

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The National Aeronautic Association (NAA) recognized the Boeing Company and the 777 team with its Robert J. Collier Trophy for 1995 for their work designing, manufacturing, and introducing the 777 into service. In its announcement for the award, which is conferred annually for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in the United States, the NAA called the 777 “the world’s most advanced commercial airplane.”

The 777 has had its share of accidents, the two most high-profile being that of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared over the Indian Ocean in March 2014 and is still the subject of search, and that of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which, while flying above restricted Ukrainian airspace in July 2014, was blown up by a warhead detonated close to the plane.

Variants

Following the successful launch of the 777 in 1995, Boeing developed further variants with expanded range and variations in passenger capacity to serve a variety of market segments. Passenger capacity ranges from 440 passengers in the 777-200 models to 550 passengers in the 777-300 series. Range for passenger models extends from 10,900 km (about 5,900 nautical miles) for the 777-200 to 17,446 km (about 9,400 nautical miles) for the 777-200LR, which was introduced in 2006 and was at the time the world’s longest-range commercial aircraft.

The 777 Freighter, or 777F, was released in 2008, having been designed specifically to carry cargo. The first delivery was to Air France in 2009.

This table shows characteristics of all 777 variants:

As of the end of 2022 Boeing had received over 2,100 orders for the 777 and had made more than 1,600 deliveries of it to some 60 customers since the 777’s introduction, making it the aircraft with the most orders and deliveries of any wide-body jetliner. As of late 2023 the 777 program was launching three new aircraft every month.