Following rumours which have surfaced today, Boeing has now confirmed that the first flight of its new 777X widebody (N779XW, WH001) will take place on Thursday, “subject to weather and other factors”. The 777-9 test aircraft should depart at around 10:00 Seattle time.
Update 23.01 / Due to weather, Boeing has postponed the first flight for January 24th.
777X should have flown for the first time last summer, but problems with the GE9X engines forced Boeing to postpone it and announce that the first flight will take place in “early 2020”. Initially, Boeing planned to offer two versions: 777-9 (426 seats) followed by 777-8 (384 seats). However, in 2019 Boeing announced it had shelved 777-8 development until a later, undisclosed date.
8 customers have placed 309 firm orders for the 777X so far: All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines. Today, January 21st, WH001 should perform new taxi tests + rejected take-off (RTO) after the ones performed in August 2019 (see this article plus videos below).
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