Boeing 777 Worldliner - the most advance airliner produced by Boeing in the 90s

Introduction

The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the "Triple Seven", is USA based long-haul wide-body twin jet airliner designed and developed by the Aircraft manufacturing giant, Boeing Company in the mid 90s.

Photo Credit: Royal S King | Airliners.net

This aircraft was designed to fill the gap between existing wide body twin and quad jets which had a vast difference regarding pax capacity and range. It was the ultimate solution for the huge Boeing 747 and the Mid sized Boeing 767. It was a replacement option for aging Douglas DC-10, MD-11, L-1011,etc. in the Western Aviation market. It was also a direct competitor for the Airbus A330 and its A340 variants.

The project was born as a result of a meeting in January 1990, between eight airlines who have seen the urgent demand for Wide-Body twin jet with pax capacity beyond 300. United Airlines being the launch customer for the type, the first prototype in the Boeing colors, rolled out in April 1990 A.D and had the first successful flight in June 1995 A.D. The aircraft entered commercial service with United Airlines in the same year.The first variant was the 200 version which became a huge success and later the longer fuselage version of 300 entered service since 2004 A.D.

Features of Boeing 777

The Triple Seven is the first ever all CAD designed aircraft Boeing ever produced. It can accommodate a 10-abreast seating layout and has a typical 3-class capacity ranging from 301 to 368 passengers, with a travel range from 5,240 Nautical miles to 8,555 nautical miles, i.e. 9,700 to 15,840 km). It is recognizable for its large-diameter turbofans from GE (General Electrics), relatively the diameter of the Boeing 737. The Main Landing gear has three sets of Wheels, fully circular fuselage cross-section, and a blade-shaped tail cone. It is the first ever Boeing to have Fly-by-wire control system. It initially compete with the now obsolete Airbus A340 variants and the MD-11s, and as of 2022, still competes with the latest Airbus A350s and Airbus A330-900 NEO aircrafts.