Boeing Stages Launch of 777X Production

With a whir and a rat-a-tat-tat, a blue-and-orange robot kicked off production of Boeing’s 777X at the company’s Everett, Washington, plant late last month. The laser-guided machine, made by supplier MTorres, drilled a hole in a carbon-fiber wing spar, then drove in a fastener. A handful of employees guided the robotic arm, one of many ways the aerospace giant is radically changing its manufacturing process with the 777X.

“This is a change in the history of how we manufacture, how we assemble and how we fly our aircraft,” 777/777X operations vice president Jason Clark told a couple hundred employees and journalists on hand for the ceremony.

The shift in production methods boosts safety and quality, Clark said. “As we transition forward, more toward a production system that’s more automotive styled or based, we really want to focus on those things that are going to get our mechanics into the operating mode versus the actual drilling and filling,” which can take a physical toll on workers.

Clark declined to say how much Boeing expects to cut production costs with the increased automation.

“The targeted automation is for those areas where it makes the most sense,” he said.

Of the four stations in the spar assembly building, only the first, where the MTorres robot sits, is fully automated. The Spanish company opened a North American plant in Everett near Boeing’s industrial campus.

Boeing produces the 105-foot-long spars nearby in its $1 billion composite wing center (CWC), where automated fiber placement robots also create stringers and skin panels. The building can support a production rate of 8.3 aircraft a month, said Perry Moore, who heads the 777X wing integrated product team.

With a span of 235 feet (71.8 meters), the 777X’s huge wings provide a big boost in fuel efficiency. However, they are too wide for most airport gates. So, Boeing and supplier Liebherr-Aerospace designed the airplane with folding wingtips that slim the span by nearly 23 feet (7 meters).

Production remains on schedule, and so far, the program team has had to make few design changes, 777X chief project engineer and vice president Terry Beezhold said.

Schedules call for the start of final assembly next year, followed by flight tests in 2019 and delivery of the larger version, the 777-9 in 2020, he added.

The 777X encompasses two models: the 777-8, which can carry about 365 seats in two class configuration and fly to a range of more than 8,700 nautical miles; and the 777-9, which will fit about 414 seats in two class configuration and 349 in three classes. It will have a range of more than 7,600 miles. Boeing specifications show the aircraft will operate 20 percent more efficiently on a seat-mile basis than the current-generation 777s.

Uncertainty from Middle East Carriers

Dubai’s Emirates Airline plans to take delivery of the first airplane, leapfrogging launch customer Lufthansa. The Dubai-based airline’s order for 150 777Xs dominates the airplane’s backlog, which stands at 340 firm orders.

Qatar Airways has ordered 60 of the long-haul jets, and Etihad has ordered 25. The Gulf carriers make up 69 percent of the 777X’s order book.

Given the “Big Three” Gulf carriers’ emphasis on range and comfort, the 777X appears a natural fit for their fleets, which already include dozens of classic 777s.

However, the Gulf carriers have hit some turbulence, which could threaten existing widebody orders at Airbus and Boeing. Profits at Emirates dramatically dropped, and the airline could find itself with more seats than it can fill. Etihad Airways has struggled with financial problems, made worse by bad investments in Alitalia Airlines and AirBerlin. Qatar Airways faces a regional blockade that has hurt its passenger business.

Middle East airlines plan to boost capacity by about 8 percent per year over the next five years, largely by adding widebody airplanes, according to an analysis by Canaccord Genuity.

“While traffic currently supports the planned fleet expansions, considering the significant exposure to the Boeing 777 (including the 777X) as well as the A350 and the A380, any slowdown in the traffic in this region would have an outsize impact on the delivery schedules at both Airbus and Boeing, in our view,” Canaccord analyst Ken Herbert wrote in the report released in September.

The “Big Three” Gulf carriers could face trouble if oil prices stay relatively low while demand for air travel slackens, Herbert told AIN in an interview.

But even in that scenario, customers likely would defer rather than cancel orders, he said.

A Boeing spokesman said the company is “very confident in the 777X based on its current backlog. Three years before the first delivery of the 777-300ER, we had only 69 orders. Three years before the first delivery of the 777X, we have 326 orders.”

The company is looking beyond the Gulf. On October 24, it formalized an order for 20 777Xs with Singapore Airlines. China accounts for another big potential market.

“The prospects for the 777X in China are tremendous,” Boeing senior VP for global sales and marketing Ihssane Mounir told AIN in an email. “China's five-year plan for 2021 to 2025 hasn't even kicked in yet. When it does, you'll see another surge in demand for the 777X. Couple that with the widebody replacement cycle coming up in the same time frame, and we're incredibly well positioned.”