Jetrader - July/August 2013 - 10

Boeing’s

Twin-Aisle Strategy
Emerges with Customer,
Financier Support

Jet maker looks to ‘harvest’ learning, technologies from
recent investments as it studies new 777  follow on,
latest 787 family  addition

A

Anticipating a marketplace for nearly
8,000 widebodied aircraft worth more
than $2 trillion over the next two decades,
aircraft maker Boeing is moving closer to
committing to its latest entries to compete
for the lucrative twin-aisle sector.
The Seattle, Wash.,-based original
equipment manufacturer (OEM) is building
its 777 family at a record-high production
rate of 100 airplanes per year to meet
demands by the world’s elite airlines now
ﬂying the twinjet.
Meanwhile, at this writing, the company’s groundbreaking 787 Dreamliner is
returning to service after its hiatus to
resolve problems with its lithium-ion battery system, and additional customers are
moving ahead to introduce the ﬁrst 21st
century jet into their ﬂeets.
With Boeing’s market-leading advantage in its 777 family and a competitive
jump with the all-composite 787, CEO Jim
McNerney told investors this spring that,
after signiﬁcant new-product investment
in recent years, the manufacturer has the
opportunity to harvest that learning, and
some of its hard-fought maturing technology, in moving forward.
For its likely next move in its widebody line revamp, Boeing is looking at

a derivative of the 777 currently dubbed
the 777X.
“The 777 is a great success, so we
want to build on and continue that,” said
Jeff VerWey, who leads integrated product
strategy at Boeing Commercial Airplanes
headquarters near Seattle. “That means
taking the best of the 777, along with
the best of the 787, to create the best
future widebody.”
VerWey noted that the company’s new
Dreamliner has set a new expectation level
for fuel efﬁciency.
Translated to its latest twin-aisle thinking, that means looking at the 777X to
have the capacity and capability between
the 787 and the 747 to ﬁll a market need
in demand—and not now addressed by the
competition.
“We’re looking at a two-model family;
one model with nearly the capacity of
today’s 777-300ER and the second model
nearly 15 percent larger. Both models meet
the mission requirements of today’s 777300ER and a little more, particularly for
some tougher requirements,” VerWey said.

Hearing from Customers
Boeing has taken a number of substantial steps toward potential launch of the

10 The ofﬁcial publication of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading

777X. It’s been working closely with airlines
and leasing companies on its options for
a number of months.
It includes several working-group meetings with customers to validate the basic
family concepts of its latest twin-aisle
strategy thinking.
“They told us that we have the capacity and capability right,” VerWey said.
“That allowed us to start talking about
some of  the other details—which of the
777 systems to retain and which should
change.”
VerWey offered some ideas about how
the company expects to capture the
anticipated efficiencies, including the
design of  a new wing and use of an allnew power plant.
“The wing is expected to be all composite with efﬁciencies from the structural
architectures that composites make possible. This will be a very high-span, highaspect ratio wing, which will reduce drag
and improve fuel efﬁciency,” VerWey said.
He added that Boeing is mindful that
any change in wingspan has to consider
the need for the airplane to operate out
of basically all of the world’s major airports. “That’s led us to thinking among
other options about a folding wingtip
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