Boeing 777x First Flight.

After two failed attempts, called off due to high winds, the latest addition to the 26-year-old Boeing 777 family has finally taken to the air. At 09:08 am, Saturday 25 January 2020, aircraft registration WH-001 started its takeoff run on runway 34 Left at Paine Field, Everett. With an 8-knot tailwind, broken clouds at 3,000 feet with 6 miles of visibility, the largest twin-engine jet took a mere 30 seconds to become airborne. Applause and cheering from the crowd were drowned out by the world's biggest jet engines, the GE Aviation GE9x.

Maiden flights of new airliners don't happen very often, maybe once or twice a decade. Whilst the first flight of the Boeing 777x is a cause for excitement, Boeing must be feeling the pressure of getting this completely right in light of the 737 MAX situation. But enough of that.

The test flight lasted four hours out over the Pacific Northwest, a major milestone and the beginning of a very rigorous aircraft certification program. Before the aircraft can be delivered to airlines and begin carrying passengers, it has to go through a certification process. This is done with the F.A.A. (Federal Aviation Administration) and then no doubt with other agencies such as E.A.S.A. (European Union Aviation Safety Agency) before it can fly to, or overfly those regions. By current estimates, Boeing expects to be in a position to start delivering the first aircraft to customers in 2021. The first of those is expected to be Emirates. The order book for the 777x stands at 309 airframes with a list price of US $442M per aircraft. Of course, this is not necessarily what airlines will pay as they will have negotiated with Boeing for discounts around things like, the number of aircraft ordered, or being the launch airline. Nevertheless, the sooner Boeing starts delivering, the sooner the income for this project will start.

The wingtip deployment can be clearly seen in this video as the Boenig 777x takes to the sky for the first time on a wet Seattle day.

So after 26 years of 777s (Tripple Sevens), what is so special about the 777x? Well, the original 777 was a step forward in its day, being computer-designed it brought a lot of new ideas to the airliner design table. The 777x is carrying on that tradition by using technologies that have been tried and tested in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This includes using more composite materials in its construction, to make use of lighter stronger materials as well as materials that are far less susceptible to corrosion. Larger windows and an updated passenger cabin will be great news for passengers on this aircraft that Boeing maintains is the most efficient twin-engined airliner in the world.

The stand-out feature, however, is the folding wingtip. This feature, until now, was typical of fighter aircraft that were assigned to aircraft carriers. To save space when the aircraft was stored below decks, its wings would be folded upwards and thereby reducing the side-to-side space required for its storage. This is a concept that Boeing went with. Creating the largest twin jet in the world, which is required to fly further than the previous version, was going to require a wing that gave more lift than the previous version. Winglets could have solved the problem to some extent, but it has been found that a longer tapered wing gives more optimal lift. The Boeing 787 and the Boeing 747 8 are testament to Boeing's findings in this area.

So why folding wingtips? Well, let's look at the Airbus A380. When it was introduced in the early 2000s, airports were required to make adjustments to gate areas to enable a much wider aircraft to be accommodated. They had to be "A380 Ready" before that airliner could land there. A huge upheaval and expense but it was seen as the new future and therefore was seen as an investment in that future. We now know of course that the days of the A380 are numbered, now that the giant twin airliners are coming of age. Boeing wanted to avoid the restrictiveness of requiring airports to upgrade to be able to handle an oversized wingspan. They wanted the 777x to be able to fly everywhere that the current generation of 777s can fly. So was born the folding wingtip idea. The wingtips allow the 777x to change from a wingspan of 235 feet in the air down to 213 feet on the ground.

As the wingtips are a totally new technology in the passenger airliner space, the F.A.A. has come up with a set of 10 conditions that have to be satisfied before certification can take place. Boeing has stated that the non-deployment of the wingtips on takeoff can lead to catastrophic results. This is logical, as a fully laden aircraft, depends on the lift that those wingtips provide. If you suddenly have smaller wings than required, you are going by road with tragic results. The 10 conditions are designed to put fail-safes in place to prevent the non-deployment of wingtips on takeoff as well as the failure of the wingtips to stay in place during flight. These conditions revolve around a comprehensive warning system to alert the crew to the fact they are attempting takeoff without the wingtips deployed. In addition, if that is ignored, there is the ability for the aircraft to prevent takeoff until wingtips are deployed. With every new technology comes a whole raft of things to consider and conditions to be tested for.

Like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which started its early days as the 7E7, the 777x will no doubt be dropped in favour of the actual variant names of 777-8 and 777-9. Some basic statics on the two models are as follows:

777x

Boeing 777-8

• Range 16,170km (8,730nm)

• 384 Passengers

Boeing 777-9

• Range 13,490km (7,285nm)

• 426 Passengers

Be sure to visit our Boeing 777x page for more details.

At 251 feet, the Boeing 777-9 will be the longest commercial aircraft in the world.

The road to this first test flight has not been a smooth one. From the time that the 777x was first rolled out of the hangar in March 2019, it was found that the new GE9x engine experienced excessive wear when run. In September when the wing stress testing was done, there was an explosive decompression event when a tear appeared in the fuselage. The manufacturing of the 777x was to be done in a fully automated assembly line by robots. Challenges in this area have forced Boeing to revert back to the traditional human-driven process.

The 777x is in the air at last. We certainly look forward to watching its progress toward certification.

How long are airliner types produced?

I'm sure the recent announcement by Airbus to curtail its production of the Airbus A380 Super Jumbo met with disappointment by many. It doesn't seem long ago that we were all excited by this brand-new groundbreaking aircraft. It promised to be the new Boeing 747 to take us into the 21st Century. I remember, only a few short years ago, being able to boast that I had actually flown on one and sharing that experience with those who hadn't.

It seems too soon to be thinking about this aircraft ceasing production in only a couple of years from now.

That got me thinking about how other airliners have fared in the past. Don't they usually get produced for longer periods than that of the A380?

Modern Airliner production number of various airliners animated over sixty years.

Like any marketable product, an airliner has to fit a niche in that market. There has to be a demand for that product. In the case of an airliner, it has to be able to generate an income for its owner so that it can make a profit. Much like a car manufacturer, they have to produce a product that is appealing to the potential customer and operates within parameters that the customer expects. These parameters include environmental concerns, but, more particularly economical concerns.

In these days of higher operating costs, it must be shown that the product has addressed these higher costs with technological solutions.

In the case of the A380, it seems technology was part of its undoing. Don't get me wrong, the A380 used state-of-the-art technology in its design and materials, and is a great example of where aviation technology has evolved to. It is more about other aviation technology that has also evolved into a very high standard of reliability. The jet engine.

There are vast differences between the production numbers of the the airliners we have chosen. It is easy to see that the sweet spot in the market is the small twin-engine jet space occupied by the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320. Of course these airliners form the back bone of airline domestic operations as well as short haul international. Whilst many of these airliners are still being produced and will grow in number, others like the A340 or Boeing 717 were superseded.

Jet engine technology is now of such a high standard that restrictions that were previously applied to aircraft with two engines flying long distances over water have been lifted. Each new engine that is brought to market has to go through a certification process along with the aircraft they happen to be attached to. This is a standard called ETOPS which stands for "Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards", or if you prefer, "Engines Turn Or Passengers Swim".

So what has this to do with our poor, not-so-old, A380? It benefits from the same engines, right? Absolutely it does, it can be sure that all four engines will keep spinning happily throughout every flight. However, waiting in the wings(and with wings) are the big twin-engine jets, like the Boeing 777, Boeing 787, Airbus A350, and Airbus A330, to name a few. They can now fly the same routes as the A380, and some of them even further. The larger of these can carry about two-thirds of the capacity of the A380, so they're not that much smaller either.

This Boeing 777 of China Southern Airlines illustrates the power and size of the giant jet engines that power it. These airliners are becoming the long-range flagships of most major airlines today and are certainly the way of the immediate future.

So why do airliners want larger twins instead of the glamourous Super Jumbo? Economics and logistics. The economics part is fairly straight foreward. The A380 is expensive to run. Four hungry engines to feed and of course all the additional spares you have to keep on hand to ensure the aircraft doesn't miss a beat if something needs replacing. If the engines aren't turning you're not earning. To make the aircraft turn a profit, it has to fly almost full all the time, which is a hard thing to achieve with over five hundred seats to fill for every flight.

The logistics side relates to where it can fly. When the A380 was about to be introduced, main airports around the world had to make major improvements to runway strength and terminal gates so as to be able to accommodate the new aircraft. Whilst this development has been done, it means that there are many airports around the world where the A380 cannot land. Airbus worked on the hub and spoke theory. They envisaged the A380 carrying large volumes of passengers between main centres from where those passengers would then connect to regional centres using local commuter airliners. The reality now, however, is that the aforementioned twin jets are capable of flying the long-haul routes once dominated by the four-engined jets, and are capable of landing at many more airports. The trend, therefore, is to be able to fly non-stop from almost anywhere to almost anywhere else.

It may surprise you learn how long or how short a time some of our iconic airliners were produced for. Those with an end date of 2018 are still in production at time of writing.

The story is similar for the Airbus A340. Its four-engined configuration was designed for those long-haul overwater flights. It enjoyed a measure of success, particularly with Asian airlines, but was also overtaken by the twin-engined jet eventually.

If we go back and look at the early jet airliners like the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC8, we can see they dominated the skies for quite some time. During a time when fuel was cheap and restrictions around noise and pollution hadn't really found their teeth yet, they were the intercontinental airliners of the day. As soon as the oil crisis of the early 1970s happened, they were no longer viable.

The Douglas DC 8 enjoyed 14 years of production, in which time 556 of the type were produced. Before the introduction of the Boeing 747, this and the Boeing 707 were the intercontinental airliners of the day.

Airliner manufacturing companies spend billions on research and development for each airliner type we see. They evaluate the selling ability as they need to know they can recoup the money they have spent, as well as of course make a profit. In the case of the A380, it is obvious that this hasn't happened. Airbus anticipated selling 1,200 of the type and has not even made a quarter of that number. This hurts the bottom line and will ultimately cost jobs.

The life of the airliner type is very dependent on the manufacturing companies keeping up with the latest technology and market trends and to a large extent, predicting the future.

Airbus announces the end of A380 production.

European aviation powerhouse, Airbus, announced, not unexpectedly, that they would cease production of the A380 Super Jumbo.

The huge double-decker A380 was set to revolutionise air travel in the new millennium and give stiff competition to the Boeing 747 Jumbo. Able to carry over 500 passengers across long distances, the A380 looked like a sure bet in that niche market. Launched in 2008 by Singapore Airlines, the future looked hopeful with orders from many of the world's prestigious airlines. Notably, Middle Eastern airline giant, Emirates, ordered a whopping 162 airframes. Airbus expected to sell around 1,200 A380s in order to recoup development costs, and of course, turn a profit. The actuality is that they have not even achieved a quarter of this target. As of the 31st of January 2019, 234 A380s have been delivered with 232 in active service. Of these 106 are with Emirates.

Where did Airbus go wrong? Like anything in the commercial world, the economics no longer stack up. The high price of the aircraft, coupled with the extensive upgrades required at airfields, before they can accommodate the Super Jumbo, led to very high overheads. Aviation, like most industries with an accent on technology, is ever-changing. It can be very difficult to predict future trends, and Airbus is not alone in this. Boeing also got burned by this trend with their 747-8i. Designed as the descendant of the much-loved 747, it met with a very lukewarm reception and has since ceased production. Boeing at least could fall back on the original failsafe of the 747, by creating a freighter version of the 747-8. This has done slightly better. The bubble on the original 747 was to enable a freighter version to be loaded through an opening nose door. They didn't have faith that the passenger version would sell, so took an "each way bet".

The focus seems to be now moving toward the long-range twin jets. Both Boeing and Airbus have a wide range of offerings in this space, which offer airlines a wide choice across their whole network. The economics of filling one very large aircraft to the point of profitability can very challenging. With slightly smaller aircraft, routes can be flown more frequently and economically. Today's giant twins like the Airbus A350 and the Boeing 777-9, are coming online and are enabling airlines to offer non-stop services between cities where it has not been possible in the past. Airlines, like QANTAS, are rethinking their strategy and proposing services that to date have not been possible.

An Airbus A380 destined for Emirates takes shape in the Toulouse factory. When production ends for the Super Jumbo in 2021, there are an estimated 3,500 jobs that will be at risk.

Only a few days ago QANTAS announced that they would no longer require the remaining 8 A380s in the order book. Virgin Atlantic also withdrew their order of 6, as they no longer wish to take up the A380. The final crunch came when Emirates announced it would reduce its order of 162 by about 20 aircraft. Once the balance of the Emirates and A.N.A. orders are fulfilled, there is no further backlog. Airbus anticipates closing production in 2021, which could impact up to 3,500 jobs. Not only will this affect Airbus, but also the many suppliers who create components for the giant aircraft.

It seems the A380 came along just a little late in the day. The focus of aviation has changed once again and it seems the day of the giant 4 engined Jumbo is over.

What is the average plane speed of a modern airliner?

Average Plane Speed

How often have you sat aboard a jet airliner and wondered about the average plane speed and how it is arrived at? Why is it that different speeds are used at different stages of the flight and why do they climb to different altitudes each time you fly?

To answer this we have to look at the various factors that determine the answer.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere in which you will be flying is a very fluid environment and just like the sea, has established currents. Also like the sea, it has varying pressures with the highest pressure being at the Earth's surface and that pressure decreases the further we get from the surface until we reach the near vacuum of space.

The currents or winds and the changing pressure play a huge part in the planning of flights and the way they are carried out. Some winds are a constant feature of the atmosphere. On the surface, we know of the Trade Winds that blow along the Equatorial regions. These winds were counted on by the early sailing ships and were so named as they blew the early traders to and from their destinations.

Like the early traders, we still count on the wind to aid us in reaching our destinations more quickly.

Since the advent of jet airliners in the 1950s which could fly much higher than their propeller ancestors, it was found there are very strong winds at those higher altitudes which were named the Jetstream. When flying with the Jetstream, one can easily add significant speed to the flight and reduce the flying time to the destination. The winds move slightly with the seasons but can be counted on to the extent that airlines schedule their flights taking into account a faster flight with the Jetstream and a slower flight against the Jetstream.

Measurement of Aircraft Speed

When we ask the question, how fast is an aircraft going? There are several answers that can be given and it can be very dependent on the stage of flight the aircraft is in.

Average plane speed and Take-off

We are sitting on the runway in a shiny new Boeing 777 about to apply full power and commence our take-off run. We’ve done our calculations and with the weight of cargo and fuel, we expect the airliner to become airborne at, for example, 152 knots(nautical miles per hour).

An Emirates Boeing-777-300 takes off in Sydney.

Hold on a minute, what does that mean exactly?

Ok, the additional information we need is that the local wind on the runway is blowing in your face and you will take off into the wind. When you are taking off, you don’t care about how fast the wheels are spinning on the ground, you care about how fast the air is moving over your wings.

For instance, if the wind is blowing in your face at 20 knots, you only need to achieve 132 knots ground speed before you can expect the aircraft to start flying. This makes for a shorter take-off run as you started with a bonus of 20 knots before you even applied engine power.

If you decided to take off with the wind in the other direction, you would start off with 20 knots of wind going the wrong way over your wings and therefore would require a longer take-off run. The result is you would take the tops off the car park shuttle buses on the perimeter road which is not approved.

So we have established that speed through the air is the governing factor of flight. This is measured and expressed as KIAS or Knots Indicated Air Speed. Simplistically this is measured by air rushing into a forward-facing tube called a pitot head or pitot tube which channels the air into a bladder inside the Air Speed Indicator. The higher the pressure which is driven by the forward movement of the aircraft, the higher the bladder causes the dial to read. It is a little more complex than that but it gives you the idea at least.

A breakdown of the basic phases of an airliner's flight.

Climb Out

Now in the climb-out phase, air traffic control will be aware of the flight plan you have lodged, however, their first priority is to get you into a traffic flow that will clear you from the airport area without banging into other flight traffic. You will be given an assigned altitude, compass heading and speed. At busy airports, this can be a long involved process and you may find yourself tracking all over the countryside, possibly even in the opposite direction to your intended destination.

During this phase of flight, the rule of thumb all over the world is that you must remain under 250 KIAS (Knots Indicated Air Speed). Remember this is your speed through the air and not across the ground, so if the same wind you had on the runway is still blowing at this level you will have a ground speed of 230 Knots if you fly against it, but if you turn around and fly with the wind you will be doing 270 knots ground speed.

The speed restriction is there to enable safer control of aircraft in a constricted space. In some cases, if it is not busy, air traffic control may release you from the speed restriction and allow you to go off on your merry way.

A QANTAS Airways Boeing 747-438 Registration VH-OJT delivered 26 Oct 1999 climbs out at Sydney. She is restricted to 250 KIAS and is under Sydney departure control.

Climb to Cruise Altitude

So long as the sky above you is not too congested you should get your clearance to climb to your desired cruise altitude and start on your actual journey. As we pass through 10,000 AMSL (Above Mean Sea Level) we can increase our speed from 250 KIAS to that recommended in our particular airliner manual. The rule of thumb is 300 KIAS.

You may wonder why we need to bother to climb to those high altitudes. Isn’t the view nicer down here where you can see something? There are a couple of answers to that:

Firstly, at higher altitudes, we can fly above most of the weather. This is a winner for the passengers who expect to have mostly smooth flying when they get on an aircraft. In the pre-jet days, aircraft were much more susceptible to the vagaries of the weather as they had to fly through storm clouds and the like which was very uncomfortable.

Secondly, the higher you climb, the thinner the air. This means an aircraft can pass through it with less air resistance and therefore can fly faster using less fuel. This not only makes the airline accountant happy but also enables a long-range aircraft to achieve that range. For example, if I loaded up my Boeing 777 with enough fuel to get from Singapore to London and then only flew at 10,000 feet of altitude. I would expect to be looking for an emergency landing site somewhere in Afghanistan as my fuel was about to run out.

A United Airlines Boeing 777-200ER taxis to runway 34L in Sydney. The 777 replaced the 747 on the US-Australia routes as of 01 April 2014. The trans-Pacific route is one of the world's longest routes and demands a careful balance between fuel and payload.

Initial Cruise

The logistics of managing a long-range flight are quite complex. The object of the exercise is to take as much payload as we can and carry it over the distance required. Obviously, for long-range flights, we need a significant amount of fuel which will make up a large proportion of our weight at take-off and initial climb-out. You may have noticed on long-haul flights you have been on, that you might climb to an altitude of around 30,000 feet to start with and then after a few hours, you may then climb to a higher altitude possibly approaching 40,000 feet.  There are two reasons for this:

Firstly, in the initial stages of flight with full fuel tanks, the aircraft is too heavy to climb economically and safely past the early 30,000s. Doing so would burn more fuel trying to achieve a higher level. It could also put the aircraft in an unstable flight phase where a stall might be possible.

Secondly, pilots may change the altitude of the aircraft during a flight from time to time to either make use of more favourable tailwinds or to avoid unfavourable headwinds.

Speed in the Cruise Phase of Flight

Once your aircraft reaches a certain height, the effectiveness of the ability to measure speed as KIAS (Knots Indicated Air Speed) begins to diminish. The air is now so thin that it can no longer provide accurate readings on the Air Speed Indicator.  This is where speed starts to be measured differently.

Most aircraft and modern airliners particularly have their speed controlled by autopilot. A speed is selected, 300 KIAS for example, and the aircraft happily flies with the autopilot applying or reducing thrust to maintain the desired 300 KIAS. When the aircraft achieves an altitude of around 25,000 feet, and this varies slightly from aircraft to aircraft, the speed is automatically changed from KIAS (Knots Indicated Air Speed) to a Mach number.

What is a Mach Number?

A Mach number is an expression of speed relative to the speed of sound. For example, Mach 1 equals the speed of sound. Mach 0.5 is half the speed of sound, and Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound. On top of that, we need to add the complexity of the air temperature.  The speed of sound is not a constant value but depends on the air it travels through for its’ speed. To illustrate this let’s take it to its’ extreme.

We know that in the sea, or water, in general, that sound travels long distances. Whales can communicate over long distances with their songs. The water molecules are dense and therefore will transmit the sound readily. At the opposite end of the spectrum, we can go into space and find that that it is almost silent. In the near vacuum, there are few molecules available to help conduct sound.

This is why when you ask, what is the speed of sound? The answer will be 761.1 miles per hour / 661 knots / 1,225 kilometres per hour, with the qualifier being, at 15 degrees Celsius at sea level. This relates to the pressure of air which is governed by the altitude and by the temperature.

Using this knowledge we can understand that the higher you fly, the lower the speed of sound becomes.  If you look at the speed of sound at sea level and compare it with that at around 40,000 feet, you would see that it is around 90 knots slower at that height than at sea level. The fact that the temperature is much colder at 40,000 feet, around minus 56C, means that it is not as slow as it might be if the temperature was the same as at sea level.

Concorde is the only airliner to date that has achieved supersonic flight or flight that is beyond Mach 1. The design is very specific and the cost to run was enormous. The sonic boom generated by the shock waves ensured that this aircraft could only ever be used over water.

The only airliner to achieve greater than Mach 1 is the Concorde which was capable of Mach 2. This airliner was specifically designed to fly through the sound barrier as it used to be known. It took many attempts to break through this so-called barrier as it calls for a totally different aircraft design. As an aircraft approaches the sound barrier, shock waves start to build up on various surfaces of the aircraft. These have an adverse effect on the aircraft’s forward movement and can negate any advantage of flying more economically through thinner air. If you persist on going faster still and get closer to the speed of sound, you will start to feel the aircraft start to buffet more and more violently until you reach a catastrophic failure of the air-frame and the aircraft breaks up.

Every aircraft comes with a Do Not Exceed speed, which indicates the air-frame is not built to sustain the possible pressures of those high speeds.

Transitioning to Mach Number

We are climbing through the mid-20,000 feet of altitude and our autopilot throttle control clicks over from KIAS to Mach.  It may be around Mach .50 or so depending on conditions and how many knots we were doing. Each airliner will have a maximum allowable Mach number and a cruise Mach number.  The cruise Mach number is used to maximise the performance so we get the most economical flight results as well as keep our aircraft within safe operating parameters. Too fast and we could bring on the buffeting which could break up the aircraft. Too slow and we could bring on a stall as the wing struggles to provide lift in the thinner air.

Typically most airliners operate in the Mach 0.71 to 0.85 range depending on the design.  To see the average plane speed for any of our featured aircraft be sure to look in the menu at the top of the page and select the Specs page for your desired airliner.

With the current flight information systems that most airlines offer, it is possible to see how fast you are flying and lots of other interesting statistics as you travel along. I always get a kick when we have a following wind to see how high the ground speed can get up to. Getting over 1,000 KPH always feels like a bonus to me.

Thanks for stopping by to find out a bit more about average plane speed. As you can see it is quite a complex answer to what appears to be a straightforward question.

I’d love to hear about your flight experiences, how fast have you gone? how high have you gone?

Sydney Welcomes American Airlines Boeing 777 300ER.

It might have been Friday the 13th, but Sydney turned on a stunning morning for the publicity visit of the American Airlines Boeing 777 300ER twin jet. This Boeing 777 had flown overnight from Hong Kong after completing a Dallas to Hong Kong service and added in a side trip to Sydney to promote the new direct American Airlines service between Los Angeles and Sydney. After an absence of 2 decades, American Airlines returns to these shores working in concert with Australian carrier, QANTAS.

The aircraft was flown empty from Hong Kong to Sydney with just two pilots on board. With an arrival at around 08:30 am into Sydney and a departure around 10:00 pm that evening, the pilots used their thirteen and a half hours in Sydney to sleep, before flying the return sector to Hong Kong.

Air traffic was at acceptable levels and Sydney tower approved a low-level pass over the airfield by the giant Boeing 777 300ER twin jet. Descending to 1,800 feet she came in from the south and did a slow fly over the field along the runway 34 left centre line. She then continued on and did a west-to-east pass over Sydney Harbour before returning back over the sea to land on runway 34 left.

Brand New Boeing 777

This American Airlines Boeing 777 300ER registration N734AR is under a month old with its first flight on 15 October 2015. It was delivered to American Airlines in Dallas / Fort Worth on 26 October 2015. Powered by 2 giant General Electric GE GE90-115B engines which are currently the largest turbofan jet engines in the world, the Boeing 777 has a very impressive presence. The engines themselves are rated to produce 115,300 lbs of thrust or 510-kilo Newtons. 

Front view of the General Electric GE GE90-115B engine which is currently the largest turbofan jet engine in the world.

Walking around underneath the 777, one gets some perspective of the actual size of this aircraft. I was fortunate enough to be able to have an up close and personal look, whilst she was housed in hanger 96 at Sydney airport for publicity visits by the press, as well as representatives from the travel industry. If the size didn't impress, the newness certainly did.

Shiny new painted tail of American Airlines Boeing 777 300ER, Registration N734AR.

Under the Boeing 777 tail looking forward. Less than a month old and this American Airlines 777 was as shiny as a new pin.

The huge engine intake on the largest turbojet engine in the world powers this American Airlines Boeing 777 300ER.

This newness was even more evident when entering the cabin from the rear door. That feeling of getting into a new car. 

On Board the American Airlines Boeing 777 300ER

There are basically 4 classes in the American Airlines 777 300ER. Main Cabin, Main Cabin Extra, Business Class, and First Class. In the Main Cabin, the configuration is 10 seats across the cabin width in a 3 x 4 x 3 setup. In Main Cabin Extra there is an additional 6 inches of legroom in the same seating style.

American Airlines Boeing 777 300ER Main Cabin. Seats are in 3x4x3 configuration.

Both Business and First Class are set up in a herringbone alcove configuration which gives each seat the feeling of privacy. All classes can enjoy 250 movies, 130 TV shows, 18 radio channels, and 380 music albums.

Each seat also has AC outlets as well as USB connections, so you will be able to have your devices fully powered during the flight and charged up for arrival. For an additional cost, WiFi is also available. The dome on top of the aircraft fuselage is the receiver for satellite internet which drives the WiFi connection.

Boeing Sky Interior

The cabin itself is presented in Boeings' new sky format, with contoured ceilings and LED lighting. This interior gives a feeling of space and coupled with the fully controllable LED lighting has a calming and relaxing effect.

Boeing Sky Interior LED lights change the look and feel of the cabin with dimming and colour changes.

Whilst walking through, each cabin had slightly different colours being emitted by the lighting which was quite effective. The feeling of space created by the contoured ceilings and luggage bins was not done at the expense of the storage space. I found the overhead luggage bins to be quite generous in size and well able to accommodate the wheelie bags that have become the favourite of today's traveller.

The average flying time between Sydney and Los Angeles is around fifteen and a half hours which can vary due to winds aloft.  The new 777 300ER certainly looked like it would make for a comfortable ride with plenty of entertainment to pass the long journey. 

One thing I did notice and if I was travelling as a couple I would try and get these seats.  There are two together next to the window instead of the usual 3 if you go to row 30, seats A and C. I believe the opposite side would be the same and would be row 30, seats H and J. They seemed to be able to recline even though the bulkhead is behind them. If anyone tries these, be sure to leave us a message below and give your thoughts and experiences.

Seats 30 A and C look good if you are travelling as a couple. Two across instead of three.

Thank you for stopping by.