First flight of Boeing’s largest aircraft 777X canceled
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Status: 00:19 h | Reading time: 4 minutes
– – –Model of the Boeing 777X at the Farnborough Air Show
Source: AFP via Getty Images
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The model should be a beacon of hope for the battered aircraft manufacturer Boeing. But now the premiere flight of the new 777X has been canceled again – and the airlines are less interested in the aircraft than hoped.
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Dhe situation is symbolic: in the worst crisis in the history of the company, the ailing Boeing group was initially unable to make its maiden flight of its largest aircraft, the 777X. For hours, the large-scale model 777-9 for up to 425 passengers stood on the runway of the airport in Everett on the US west coast on Friday. In the beginning there was heavy rain and later too much wind, so the premiere flight was canceled around 1:30 p.m. local time. Now a new attempt is to be made this Saturday.
The premiere was canceled the day before due to the bad weather. The plane didn’t roll out of the hall at all. However, a delay of a few days is no longer important. The entire 777X schedule is already a year late. The model was supposed to be a beacon of hope for Boeing. With two engines, the aircraft is said to be significantly more economical than a 747 jumbo jet with four engines.
The special features of the aircraft include the unusually large wings with an enormous wingspan of 72 meters. The wings made of modern carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) are so huge that the outer wing tips can be folded up after landing. This means that the largely new aircraft fits into the same parking spaces as the previous generation 777, which took off for the first time in 1994. Before the start of the 777X, the 3.5 meter long wing tips are folded down.
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