The long-awaited first flight of the Boeing 777X will take place this week. Boeing has confirmed that the test flight will take place on Thursday, January 23rd, subject to weather conditions and other factors.The test flight will take place at Boeing's Everett Paine Field site but will fly to Seattle for the landing. Should inclement weather present this week, the first flight could be pushed back. However, in the case of a decent outlook, we could be seeing the long-awaited flight of this groundbreaking aircraft before the weekend!

Spotted out of the paintshop

Today’s news comes around two weeks after AirlineRatings reported a spot of the first 777X out of the paintshop and prepared for its first flight. Twitter user @mattcawby shared photos of the aircraft undergoing on the ground testing earlier in January.

 

According to his latest tweets, WH001 will undergo taxi testing this afternoon, dependent on the weather.

WH001 is the first of the fully airworthy 777-9s to roll of the production line, and will be Boeing’s first test aircraft going forward.

What do we know about the 777-9 so far?

The first variant of the 777X to be released will be the 777-9. This will be followed a few years later by the smaller, long-range 777-8. To date, the 777-9 has sold well, with the lion’s share of the 309 total orders going to the larger model. The 777-8 hasn’t sold so well, yet.

Make no mistake, this is an aircraft to get excited about. The bespoke designed GE9X engines are the largest engines ever to be installed on a commercial aircraft. They’ll give airlines 5% lower fuel burn, 10% lower fuel costs and 29% fewer emissions than the leading competitor aircraft.

As far as PaxEx goes, the 777X promises great things. Much of the passenger-focused technology from the Dreamliner is being incorporated into the 777X, including higher humidity, improved pressurization and dimmable windows. The windows themselves will be 29% larger than on the previous Boeing 777, allowing for 162 square inches of viewing.

As well as this, the 777X will feature larger overhead bins, a massive operating range and, of course, those glorious folding wingtips.

A pick me up for Boeing

Last year’s 777X development did not go to plan. Ongoing problems with the GE9X engines meant the first flight couldn’t happen when it was supposed to. Then a test fuselage was ripped apart during pressure trials. To cap it all, one of the replacement engines was damaged on delivery.

However, it now seems Boeing has ironed out all the kinks and is ready to let its state-of-the-art bird take flight. After a year when nothing went right for Boeing, getting the 777X off the ground finally will be a welcome pick me up for the beleaguered manufacturer.