Boeing 777X first flight to take place tomorrow

GE Aviation’s largest ever engine, the GE9X, was flight tested while attached to a Boeing 747 in March 2018, but it will be the engine for the 777X.
Launched in November 2013 with an order for 150 aircraft from Emirates, the 777X family has two variants, the 777-8 and the 777-9. The 777X family has an aluminium fuselage and carbon composite wings. The 777-8 is 70m long, can carry up to 375 passengers and has a range of 8,700 nautical miles (16,110km). The 777-9 is 77m long, can carry up to 425 passengers and has a range of 7,600nm (14,075km). Both aircraft have a wingspan of 72m, but because of the limitations of airport layouts, the last seven metres folds up. The far ends of the wing are hinged.

On that wing are two GE9X engines, each with a fan diameter of 335 centimetres (132 inches) that have a carbon fibre case and 16 carbon fibre blades helping the engines achieve a compressor ratio of 27:1. The GE9X can produce 102,000-pounds (453 kiloNewtons) of thrust and GE claims it has a fuel burn improvement of 10% when compared with its GE90-115B engine that powers the Boeing 777-300 Extended Range. The fuel burn improvement, and lower nitrogen oxide emissions the engine also boasts, require higher temperatures at the engine’s core. In the GE9X that is 1,316°C (2,400°F).

Both engine and aircraft are employing new manufacturing technologies, from robots replacing manual work on the wing and fuselage to the processes for the ceramic matrix composites (CMC) at the core of the GE9X.

Boeing 777 and 777X operations vice-president, Jason Clark, told Aerospace Manufacturing: “We have strategically targeted automation for highly repetitive processes and tasks to increase safety and quality.”

The 777X carbon fibre wing is the largest wing Boeing has ever built. The wing’s spar and panel fabrication are completed in the aerospace giant’s Composite Wing Centre (CWC), 120,773m² building that was opened in May 2016. www.boeing.com