Boeing beats the drum for its 777 range
Fri "The Australian"
Boeing beats the drum for its 777 range
Geoffrey Thomas
September 03, 2004
NEXT year, Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport will be the centre of some spectacular record-breaking flight tests to demonstrate the extraordinary capabilities of Boeing's 777-200LR, which when it flies early next year will become the world's longest-range commercial aircraft.
Prime targets for sales are airlines such as Qantas, and Boeing is focused on winning the majority of Qantas's medium capacity long-haul business with a mix of 365-seat 777-300ERs, which Singapore Airlines ordered last week, and the 300-seat 777-200LR.
From late 2006 the flagship of Qantas's long-haul fleet will be the stunning 555-seat A380s for the prime Sydney-London and Sydney-Los Angeles routes, while the airline is taking the 300-seat A330s for regional international routes.
This combination, however, leaves a significant gap in capacity/range capability for a 350-400 seat aircraft with the range to fly Los Angeles-Sydney and Singapore-London carrying a full payload.
And Qantas does not have an aircraft capable of opening new city pairs such as Sydney-Dallas or Los Angeles-Adelaide, where optimum seating requirements are no more than 300. Qantas has a one-gateway US strategy, whereas Air New Zealand serves both Los Angeles and San Francisco nonstop from Auckland.
Boeing is advocating a mix of 777s as a solution. The 777-200LR is the latest variant of the 777 which first flew in 1994 and is capable of flying nonstop from London to Sydney or Chicago to Sydney with 300 passengers.
Insiders at Boeing have told The Australian to expect a series of world record flights from the 777-200LR to highlight the aircraft's performance capabilities.
The 777-200ER already holds the world distance record, flying without payload from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur, a distance of 20,044km, in 21 hours 23 minutes.
The 777-200LR would easily smash that record but it is the aircraft's payload-range capability that grabs airline executives' attention, and it is here that Boeing believes it has an ace.
Qantas is facing serious competition from Emirates, which has new nonstop flights to its super-hub at Dubai from Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. Through Dubai, Emirates is able to offer one-stop flights to more than 20 destinations in Europe, while Qantas operates to just three – London, Frankfurt and Paris.
Boeing argues that a combination of 777 models powered by General Electric engines would give Qantas the flexibility to serve smaller cities in Europe with an economic payload and to offer passengers the first Britain-Australia nonstop flights.
Adding to the commercial pressure on Qantas is Air New Zealand's recent order for up to 52 777s and 7E7s for delivery from September next year, and last week's order from Singapore Airlines for up to 31 777-300ERs.
The latest models of the 777 are undergoing certification to meet the expected expanded rules governing the operation of twin-engine aircraft away from suitable diversion airports, dubbed extended twin operations (ETOPS).
Currently, twin-engine aircraft can fly up to 207 minutes from a diversion airport and the FAA plans to extend that to 240 minutes, based on the extraordinary reliability of today's commercial aircraft and their systems.
ETOPS-capable aircraft must be maintained to higher standards and are equipped with more back-up equipment.
The dramatic improvement in reliability in ETOPS-equipped twin-engine aircraft has prompted Airbus, which pioneered ETOPS flights, to certify its new four-engine A340-500 and 600 aircraft to ETOPS standards.
The new regulations would eliminate hard diversion limits on operation of twin-engine aircraft, giving compliant operators the freedom to fly certified aircraft types virtually unfettered on routes taking them over remote and inaccessible areas of the world such as some South Pacific and Southern Ocean routes.
But to get this approval, the manufacturers must demonstrate the unprecedented level of reliability of one engine shutdown per 50,000 flight hours (0.01/1000 flight hours) – or one every 13 years in normal flying operations.
Boeing's 777-200ERs are demonstrating a shutdown rate of just 0.005/1000 flight hours and the 777-300ER and 200LR are designed for a rate of 0.002/1000 flight hours.
The industry has gained enormous experience with twin-engine aircraft with almost 4 million ETOPS flights of 767, 777, A300, A310 and A330 aircraft over the past 18 years.
According to Lars Anderson, manager of the 777 Longer Range program, "including flights to Hawaii, there are now more twin-engine trans-Pacific operations than the combined operations of four-engine and three-engine jets."
"There are also now more ETOPS flights – 429 a day – in the Pacific region, than across the Atlantic," he said.
Qantas and Air New Zealand pioneered twin-engine operations in the Pacific region with their 767-200ERS in the mid-1980s.
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