777-9 at last! Boeing of the future gets the green light for official testing: when will we see it at airports
While the 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10 continue to remain two 'hopeless' cases that no one knows when (but [...]
Singapore Airlines
Qatar Airways
Lufthansa
Emirates
While the 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10 continue to remain two 'hopeless' cases that are not known when (but perhaps not even 'if') they will obtain certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, aviation safety regulator, things are finally coming together regarding the twin-engine long-range aircraft of the future at Boeing, the 777-9.
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July 11, in fact, the Everett-based manufacturer received from the FAA the Type Inspection Authorization (TIA), in Italian the Model Inspection Authorization. stating that the aircraft is formally and operationally ready for FAA inspection processes and is basically the act that marks the beginning of the actual certification process of the model.
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In the four and a half years since the first flight of the 777-9 in January 2020, Boeing has conducted hundreds and hundreds of flight hours with different airplanes, but The one on July 12 (which lasted 1 hour and 52 minutes) was the first one conducted with at the controls pilots not from Boeing, but from the FAA.
As early as June 2021, Boeing and FAA had discussed the TIA. But the FAA had deferred recognition, instead recommending that Boeing make a "considerable software upgrade," in addition to resolving the technical problems that on Dec. 8, 2020, caused pilots to severely lose control of the airplane's descent angle during a flight test.
At this point, it becomes possible again that the first deliveries of the aircraft to customers (which I have been waiting years and years for, considering that the date was originally set by the end of 2020) May take place by the end of 2025, although Emirates CEO had recently expressed little confidence that he could have the plane in the fleet by the end of next year, putting it off until 2026.
As for who will receive the 777-9 first, it should be a three-way match between Lufthansa (which now seems favored), Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines. The three companies have ordered 27, 74, and 31 aircraft, respectively.
The 777-9 boasts a pair of records among dedicated passenger aircraft: at 76.7 meters, it is the longest civil aircraft ever built ahead of the 747-8 (76.2m) and the Airbus A340-600 (75.4m), with the A380 being 'detached' at 'just' 73m. And it has the largest engines ever mounted on a passenger aircraft, with a diameter of 335cm (almost as large as that of the 737 MAX cabin, which is 354cm).