Sweet spot

In the piston era, the Douglas DC-3 and DC-6B hit the sweet spot while in the jet era, the 707-320C, Super DC-8s, A300-600, 747-400, A320, A330 and 737NG are others that have brought together the right numbers at the right time.

But getting Boeing to hit the sweet spot with the 777-300ER was not easy going, according to Emirates President Tim Clark, who battled Boeing to “get serious” about the next development of the twin-engine 777 and marry the aircraft to an engine with far greater power.
However, the 777 was not always a twin-engine aircraft. It started life as a DC-10 lookalike in the late 1970s before evolving into a very weird 767 with a rear double deck borrowed from the 757.

Boeing had messed with a variety of versions of the 767 from 1986 before being laughed at by Cathay Pacific executives, who described the double deck 767 as the “hunchback of Mukilteo” (a small town with great seafood restaurants near Everett).

“Emirates president Tim Clark battled Boeing to “get serious” about the next development of the twin-engine 777 and marry the aircraft to an engine with far greater power.”

In the mid 1990s with the twin-engine 777 established, Boeing strove to match the mooted A340 developments, which had been a response to the 777-200ER and -300 models.

Those developments were launched in December 1997 as the A340-500 and -600 with 50 orders and 50 options from Air Canada, Virgin Atlantic, Eva Air, Egypt Air, Emirates, Lufthansa and Swissair.

The need for thrust

In October 1995, Boeing presented its 777X plans to 14 international airlines and those models even included a truncated model, the 777-100, with 12 frames removed that would have made the aircraft 21 feet shorter than the -200.

All models were to use 98,000lb thrust class engines from all engine makers which would have been modest increases in thrust.
Most airlines however turned their noses up at the variant’s performance and Boeing went through exhaustive studies to try and tweak more range and payload.

At one stage, that included a small booster engine (7,000lbs) located in the tail for takeoff – a concept borrowed from the Trident 3B.
This was also to double as the aircraft’s APU and thus was called the Auxiliary Power and Thrust Unit (APTU).

However, as Clark told the author in early 1999 “what was needed was higher thrust engines in the 115,000 lbs class.” Clark told Boeing to stop “messing around”.

GE was eventually selected as sole source for the new models with its GE90-115B rated at 115,300lbs of thrust for the -300ER and 110,000 for the -200LR.

Rolls-Royce apparently could not agree on risk sharing and had proposed an 114,000lb thrust version of its Trent 800, the 8104.

Air France launched the 777-300ER/200LR program with an order for 10 -300ERs on February 29, 2000, although the airline was not named for political reasons.

The new 777 models featured a host of enhancements and modifications to meet the promised performance and takeoff weights. These included:

Overhead attendant and crew rest installation

Increased fuel capacity

Aerodynamically raked wingtips

Strengthened body and empennage

Tail strike protection

Semi-levered gear

New main landing gear

Strengthened nose gear

New wheels, lightweight main gear tires and brakes

Three optional fuel tanks in the aft cargo compartments

The first 777-300ER was unveiled on November 14, 2002 and took to the air on February 24, 2003. That flight launched a 12-month three aircraft flight-test program that was by any measure a stunning success.

The three aircraft completed 1,500 flight-test hours and 1,000 ground-test hours during the program and the aircraft exceeded all predications. The aircraft’s range was increased by 100nm, takeoff roll reduced by 900ft, fuel reduced by 1.5 per cent and the 777-300ER was able to demonstrate a 4 knot reduction in landing speed.

But even better was to come with Air France finding after it took delivery of its first ILFC leased 777-300ER in April 2004 that it was achieving another 0.85 per cent better fuel burn that the revised figures from flight test.

Boeing later took an Air France 777-300ER and flew it from Seattle to Sydney using an Air France typical flight profile and confirmed the results.

But more was to come. In November 2005, when Boeing delivered a 777-300ER to Air France, it incorporated enhancements that improved overall fuel efficiency by a further 1.4 per cent.

This equated to an annual fuel saving of approximately 200,000 gallons, according to the Boeing.

The improvements result from a modification to the GE90-115B by GE; drag reduction via modification of the vortex generators and air induction systems for the environmental control systems; and, weight savings that include lighter weight ECS ducts and main deck floor panels.

The enhancements were retrofitted to existing 777-300ERs in the world fleet and incorporated into 777-200LRs.

Performance plus

End result of the performance improvements was an aircraft with a takeoff weight of 351, 530kg with a range of 7,939 nm.

The 777-200LR’s takeoff weight was 347, 450kg and the range 9,395 nm, while the freighter’s range was 4,885nm.

During the 777-200LR’s certification program, it set a world record for a twinjet when it took off from SeaTac for stall tests at 783,000 lb, eclipsing the record of 774,600 lb.(351,300 kg) set by the 777-300ER as part of its certification program in 2003.

Chief 777 Program Pilot Frank Santoni told Australian Aviation at the time that Boeing wanted to test the stall characteristics at 770,000 lb, which required the record takeoff weight.

The stall tests that were performed between 10,000 ft and 20,000 ft “went perfectly”, he said.

Another record gained by the 777-200LR in November 2005 was the distance record for its class of 11,664 nm (21,601 km) when it flew from Hong Kong to London eastbound in 22 hr 42 min.

In command was Boeing’s Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann supported by seven other captains including three Boeing pilots, among them Frank Santoni and John Cashman, along with two PIA pilots and one Singapore Airlines captain.

The flight broke the previous weight-category record of 9,200 nm set by Qantas in 1989 on the delivery flight of its first 747-400, which flew from London to Sydney with 18 passengers. That flight took 20 hr 9 min.

Fuel miser

And on performance, according to Boeing’s Regional Director of Product Marketing Dave Kell, the A340-600 in a 323 seat configuration burns 28 per cent more fuel than the 365-seat 777, while the 280-seat A340-500 burns 27 per cent more fuel than the 301-seat 777-200LR.

“At 2.9 litres per passenger per 100km, the 777 is the most fuel efficient wide-body,” Kell argues.

Sole Source

The sole source selection of the GE90 for the 777-300ER/200LR and Freighter was initially met with resistance from the operators of Rolls-Royce and P&W powered 777s.

Key customers such as Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, JAL and ANA were not active GE customers and this combined with the slowdown after 9/11 saw only 76 sales for the -300ER up to December 2004. In fact, there were only 11 sales in 2002 and 4 sold in 2003.
Contrary to commonly held belief, GE does not have a legally binding contract with Boeing that precludes it from developing an engine to compete head-to-head with the 777-300ER/ -200LR but the two parties do have a “gentleman’s agreement.”

As described to Australian Aviation, the GE/Boeing effort on the long-range 777s “is more like a joint venture partnership: We jointly sell the aircraft/engine to customers.”

That “partnership” was put into sharper perspective by GE VP-Sales Roger Seager, who told media at the handover of SIA’s first 777-300ER in November 2006: “There is an agreement on how we’ll use the GE90 engine and that ties us to the Boeing 777.”

Discussing GE’s reluctance to sign on to the A350 XWB-1000, which would be a head-to-head competitor for the 777-300ER, he explained: “We’re protecting our investment. Why would we want to go and participate with another product that would compete directly?”

That position has turned into a public spat, with Airbus COO-Customers John Leahy declaring at the IATA AGM in June 2007 that “GEnx engines don’t work for us at all.” He added: “We have no intention of putting their GEnx engine [which was designed specifically for the 787 platform] on the A350 XWB. It has to be a generation beyond.”

After an Airbus/GE meeting at the Paris Air Show two weeks later, Leahy accused GE of playing favorites. “The problem we have with GE is they go to Seattle and say, ‘What kind of engine should we design for your airframe?’ Then they come to Toulouse and say, ‘Here is the kind of airframe you need to build to fit our engine,'” he told the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

With the 777-300ER entering service, orders started to flow. Emirates finally committed with 4 and Singapore Airlines ordered 18 for a total of 28 in 2004.

Niche production

The slow sales rate also had it roots in the policy of then Boeing President Harry Stonecipher who had driven McDonnell Douglas out of the commercial business with his mantra of “niche production at significant margins”, say insiders at Boeing.

At McDonnell Douglas, Stonecipher walked away from leasing company deals with ILFC and others arguing that the margins were too fine with the result that production rates for the MD90 series and MD11 suffered from a lack of economy of scale.

After the merger with Boeing, Stonecipher’s mantra held sway with Boeing salesman forced to turn their backs on many deals. It is perhaps no coincidence that after Stonecipher was forced to resign, after an affair with an employee, 777-300ER sales surged.

Stonecipher departed in early March 2004 and the 777-300ER chalked up 90 sales from June through December of that year. Only 8 had been sold in the first five months.

Over the next three years to December 2008 a further 184 were sold, including 6 to V Australia.

The 777-200LR has received 49 orders being a specialist design while the freighter variant has chalked up 73 orders and the first one was delivered to Air France last month.

The freighter was rolled out on May 21 last year and two aircraft took part in a 350 flight test hour and 700 ground test hour certification program.

The 777-200F program was launched on May 24, 2005 and the 777F is the only freighter that offers cargo interlining with the 747 freighter series, and it burns 41% less fuel than a 747-200F, while carrying essentially the same load.

Production pressure

With the surge in sales and the surge in fuel prices, Boeing came under intense pressure to up its production rate in early 2008 with the availability for new orders quoted as 2014.

Boeing was coy on a response to the market at the time simply saying that it was “experiencing unprecedented demand for its commercial airliners and is constantly reviewing the complex process of matching demand with the physical and economic constraints of the production system.”

While building seven a month, Boeing was leery of a fast ramp-up after the ramp-up fiasco of 1997, when production had to be shutdown on 737 and 747 lines to catch up.

Boeing explained to ATWOnline: “In the past, Boeing, its employees, suppliers and its customers suffered the effects of a breakdown of the production process resulting from efforts to increase production too rapidly. Boeing is determined to produce efficiently through the market cycles going forward.”

The company added that “this effort may result in us not being able to meet all customers’ requirements in the timeframe they prefer. Ultimately, though, Boeing believes that a disciplined approach to managing production rates is in the best interests of all parties involved.”

While the heat has come off production rates as the world economy goes through one of its toughest economic times, airlines such as Emirates are still calling for improvements in the 777 and there have been no 777 cancellations.

Clark told Australian Aviation last year that he was pressing Boeing to upgrade the 777 again claiming that it could be made 10 per cent more fuel efficient.

Clark dubs the new model the -300ERX and said that “Boeing is looking at a range of improvements to materials, weight, engines and aerodynamics that would give up to a 10% improvement in SFC.”

The -300ERX would counter the promised brochure performance of the A350-1000, which Clark said still is being finalised.

Clark said a performance improvement on the -300ER, which he called a “really beautiful aircraft”, will occur before any replacement of the 777, which he sees coming in the 2020-25 timeframe.

ILFC Chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy wants a larger model, the -400ER.

Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Scott Carson confirmed to Australian Aviation last year that “modest refreshes” of the 777 will be coming and may include “some composite” in the airframe.

Here and now

The real beauty of the 777-300ER is that it is here and now and outperforming all other wide bodies. Its reliability, in part due to its ETOPS credentials, is outstanding and sits at 99.2 per cent – well ahead of the A340-500/600 models.

V Australia’s selection of the 777 was in stark contrast to Qantas’s on-again off-again evaluations of the aircraft’s virtues.

According to several executives, it was a no-contest. “The 777-300ER was a standout,” one executive said.

CEO Brett Godfrey was more diplomatic saying that the 777-300ER was “the perfect aircraft for the [Trans-Pacific] route” and referring to the aircraft’s fuel burn, he claimed “it was the green champion.”

In the V Australia configuration of 360 seats the 777-300ER burns about the same amount of fuel per passengers as a 555-seat A380, says Godfrey, while the trip costs of the Boeing are “way less”, he says.

It thus comes as no surprise that the 777-300ER is now the fleet mainstay of the world’s most successful airlines – Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Air France, British Airways, Japan Airlines and ANA.

Soon to join the 777-300ER club is Air New Zealand which like V Australia has turned its back on large four-engine aircraft, opting instead for “Boeing’s giant twin.”

And those fuel burn numbers have resulted in the 777 wiping the floor of its opposition, the A340 and MD-11.

To date the 777 has sold 1,113, while the MD-11 sold only 200 and the A340 family 385.

More telling of the 777’s dominance is the -300ER/200LR models which have sold a combined 430 plus a further 73 freighters for a total of 503 while Airbus has just managed 87 A340-600s and 28 A340-500s – most of which were sold before the 777-300ER/200LR was launched.

Whereas Boeing has a backlog of 316 777-300ER/200LR and Freighters to be delivered, Airbus has only 24 of the A340 family left to be built.