Rumor Mill Says Most Dev Work is Finished for Long-Delayed Cargo Carrier

Boeing’s 777X might be getting close to certification, according to pundits watching the process from afar–at least, that’s what the rumor mill says.

The Boeing 777X will be their attempt at competing for the long-range widebody twin-jet market, offered in either a 395-seater 777-8 or a 426-seater 777-9. It’s not exactly new-news, as there’s been a handful of articles throughout the spring describing the impending completion of their newest aircraft, but it’s fun to see Boeing overcome their production issues and get back into fighting form. The 777-9 will likely be the first triple-seven variant to be released, and had some teething issues in testing right on the heels of its notorious 737 woes. The biggest issue for the 777-9s had to do with thrust links breaking under vibration, a problem that quickly grounded the test fleet when it came to light. Beefed up linkages, and some extra engineering-hours invested seem to have things back on the right track, and not a moment too soon.

Since much of Boeing’s development is relatively private, and in-house, there’s no shortage of onlookers reading tea leaves to find out what’s happening behind the scenes. Some have said 777-9 customers are angry with the delays, that they found it too expensive even before its supposed service entry in 2020, others have more optimistically said the type’s newfangled GE9X turbofans will make up for all of this with some time in service. Either way, the industry has waited more than 5 years for the new aircraft to start making them money.

Scott Hamilton of Leeham News reported on the issue with some confidence, believing that the 777-9 will be coming out of the oven pretty soon. “Boeing sees the program is finally on track for certification this year and EIS next year,” Hamilton said. How right that is remains to be seen.

FMI: www.boeing.com