Aircraft
Boeing Seeing Steady Progress with 777X
98-percent of engineering releases completed
Mechanics in 2017 prepare to move the first 777X wing into position for completion ahead of its eventual installation at Boeing's widebody plant in Everett, Washington. (Photo: Boeing)
Mechanics in 2017 prepare to move the first 777X wing into position for completion ahead of its eventual installation at Boeing's widebody plant in Everett, Washington. (Photo: Boeing)

Engineers have attached the first fuselage barrels for the first two Boeing 777-9s—the static test airframe and the first flight test example—and moved them into systems installation, the company reported late last month, and the first pair of wings have emerged from the horizontal build line (HBL) at the company’s widebody plant in Everett, Washington. Scheduled to complete the static test airframe by the end of the year, Boeing has moved the wings for the larger of the two 777X variants into laydown and systems installation, while at the 1.3-million-sq-ft composite wing center (CWC), the company has now begun fabricating wings for the fifth airplane. So far, Boeing has sent four sets of wings out of the CWC and into spar assembly.