Boeing has stolen the Dubai Air Show with an amazing display by its 777-9 twin engine giant. The aircraft twisted and turned as if its was an aerobatic aircraft.
The 777-9 represents a major leap for the wide-body twin-aisle market, offering a blend of size, efficiency and airport compatibility. One of the most visible changes is its all-new composite wing with folding wingtips. As Aviation Week reports, folding sections allow the aircraft to maintain a wide wingspan in flight yet retract to standard interchange gate limits on the ground — the tip sections each span roughly 12 ft and the fold process is demonstrated to take about 20 seconds.
The large wing contributes to a higher lift-to-drag ratio, enabling longer range and improved fuel burn. In the context of the 777X family, Aviation Week notes that the wingspan increase (to some 238-plus feet) was enabled in part by the new wing design and the folding tips.
The aircraft is powered by the GE9X engine, a new-generation high-thrust turbofan making the 777-9 competitive in fuel-burn and long-haul efficiency.
From a maintenance and operational viewpoint, Boeing and Aviation Week describe the 777-9 as having “a lot of commonality” with legacy 777s and 787s, but also new systems—for example the folding wingtip actuator and latch systems that technicians are being trained on.
These features position the 777-9 as capable of carrying more passengers on long-haul routes, while also fitting into many existing airport infrastructures thanks to the wing-tip folding system.
In short, the 777-9 introduces: greater capacity, longer range, reduced fuel per seat, and innovations (notably the folding wingtips) that enable a very large airplane to operate in many of the same airport gates as current twins
