Boeing 777 — The Ultimate History (II)
Part II — From the first component to the first flight & to the first delivery (1993–1995): The Boeing 777 is finally being constructed, to be presented, tested & delivered to the customers.
As I already explained on the previous article, the first Boeing 777 started to be built in 4th January 1993, in the newly expanded Boeing’s Everett Factory, with the construction of the first component, a wing spar for one of the wings, which was rivetted by a computorised machine.
The Boeing 777, as you may already know, has 3 million parts, supplied by contractors around the World (in Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore and United States). One list of some notable suppliers for the 777 program included: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, both from Japan, which provided the fuselage panels for the 777, Fuji Heavy Industries, also from Japan, provided the centre wing section, Hawker de Havilland (de Havilland Australia), from Australia, provided the elevators, and Aerospace Technologies of Australia (ASTA) provided the rudder of the 777. The rudder itself was subject of a controversy, which involved a design change: Boeing decided to change the rudder design (a material change) after ASTA started the construction of the rudder. After some problems & after some considerations, ASTA was able to complete the redesigned rudder on time, on 1st August 1993.
The very first piece of fuselage arrived earlier, on 13th May 1993, which were the major body sections of the first aircraft. Those sections were joined with another sections, including the wings, which were mounted before the supplying of those sections to Boeing. The last of those sections were joined on 15th December 1993. By January of 1994, the airplane was moving on its own wheels. The engine for the first Boeing 777, a Pratt & Whitney PW4084, would come later, after solving some problems which come after tests of original design. Those problems put the 777 behind schedule for two weeks.
However, in 9th April 1994, the first Boeing 777 aircraft made its rollout debut in a series of 15 ceremonies held during the day for acommodate 100,000 people, which gathered customers, workers and suppliers. For that purpose, Boeing commissioned Dick Clark Productions for creating a highly emotional event that socialises the concept of Working Together, used extensively on the Boeing 777. The 100,000 people were divided into groups of 6,500 people. You can see the ceremony below:
The first flight for the Boeing 777, equipped with Pratt & Whitney engines, as I said, was made on 12th June 1994, under the command of the test pilot veteran John E. Cashman, which was selected for being one of the test pilots of the Boeing 777 program. The co-pilot was Kenneth Higgins, another Boeing veteran. The flight in question dured 3 hours and 48 minutes. A day before (11th June 1994), the Boeing 777 executed taxing tests, included high speed runs with and without full flap down configuration.
The 777's first flight was also the first one to taking place before the eyes of the media (and before the eyes of the World), in one of the first massive Boeing’s PR operations of the time. The 777 first flight was also attended by thousands of people in the location of the event — in Everett, Washington — at the Paine Field Airport.
The first flight marked the beginning of 11-months of strengtheous tests, which was also more extensive than any previous Boeing aircraft ever built (approximatedly 3,300 flying hours before the airplane was delivered). The tests included also stall speed tests, engine inflight shutdown tests, and a massive RTO (Rejected Take-Off) braking test, which the aircraft, loaded at the MTOW — the maximum takeoff weight, which in the case of the 777–200 is of 288 metric tonnes — was able to successfully stopping with the brakes at the minimum allowable thickness and without the main components of the aircraft catching fire. The aircraft, which executed the test, put 9.7 million foot-pounds of energy into the worn 12 brakes of the 12 wheels, which were destroyed due to the fire after the RTO test (at the cost of $750,000 at the time). Nine aircraft, with General Electric GE90, Rolls Royce Trent 800 and Pratt & Whitney PW4000 were used on those flight tests, which occurred in locations ranging from the desertic ones in the Edwards AFB in California, to frigid ones in Alaska, more notabily at Fairbanks International Airport.
Another test was done on 16th January 1995, done on a airplane purposedly built for the test. This one was a destructive test, to determine if the airplane wings could withstand extreme forces, originated by bad handle or exceptionally heavy turbulence. Boeing engineers wanted also to know if the current wing design was also able to be used on heavier versions of the Boeing 777. The Boeing 777 wing cracked at an impressive 154% design limit load, well above the 150% limit load required by the FAA and JAA (now EASA).
Another test done between 1994 and 1995 was the testing for granting a 180-minute ETOPS, a certification that Boeing required to sell the 777 with that certification “out-of-the box”. This means that Boeing wanted to sell the Boeing 777 certified for 180-minute ETOPS from the day one. For that purpose, some of the nine airplanes, which logged about 7,000 hours of flight testing in 4,000 flights, performed eight 180-minute single engine flights. The FAA and JAA certifications for the Boeing 777 were awarded simultaneously on 19th April 1995.
The very first airplane was delivered to United Airlines on 17th May 1995, on a big event at Boeing’s Everett plant. At the time, United Airlines have filmed a commercial to promote the Boeing 777, in order to attract passengers for the then-new aircraft. It was conceived to show the then-new features of this particular airplane — like a inflight entertainment for all seats of the airplane, a thing which never existed on that scale on any another airplane of any company at the time — It had a multi-channel video screen, a telephone and a computer in every seat, things that even the 777 program manager at the time, Alan Mulally, didn’t see himself to use them.
The Boeing 777, during the later period of the flight testing, suffered some late problems, notabily those related with a faulty cabin pressure valve which made the cabin depessurise on one test flight, which resulted in serious injuries. It was solved after the redesign of the cabin pressure valve in question.
The 180-minute ETOPS for the Boeing 777 equipped with Pratt & Whitney PW4077/84 was awarded on 30th May, 1995, making it the first airliner to be certified for 180 minute ETOPS in the world. The General Electric GE90-powered 777–200 was certified in November 1995, after some delays due to the considerable teething problems developed by the GE90 at the time, since it was a completely new design, in comparison with the another two engines, which were derivatives of older and existing designs. The Rolls Royce Trent 877 equipped 777–200 was certified in 1996, but with a advance of 3 months.
The first revenue flight of the Boeing 777 was made by United Airlines, on 7th June 1995, from London Heathrow Airport to Washington Dulles Airport. Another two 777s of United made another flights in the same day from Washington Dulles to Denver (a domestic US flight) and from Chicago O’Hare Airport to Frankfurt International Airport.
The first General Electric GE90–77B powered Boeing 777–200 was delivered to British Airways in 12th November 1995 — with its first revenue flight occurring in 17th November 1995. The initial service of those airplanes were marred by the teething problems, like gearbox wearing issues, which caused British Airways to withdraw the 777s from transatlantic service in 1997, returning to those services in late 1997. After those incidents, General Electric subsequently announced engine upgrades, which are still being issued today. The first Boeing 777 with Rolls-Royce Trent 800 was delivered to Thai Airways International in 31st March 1996, completing the introduction into the service of the 3 engine options for the Boeing 777.
Each engine have secured, as planned, the ETOPS-180 from the point of entry into service. The dispatch reliability of the first Boeing 777 airplanes was of 98.5%, despite of some early teething problems which the airplane had on its first year.
That’s what I’ve to say in this 2nd part of the “Boeing 777 — The Ultimate History” — Please follow me on Twitter (@O530CarrisPT is my username) to not lose the next part, entitled: “Part III — The Initial Derivatives & Platform Maturation (1995–2000)”.
