Boeing mulling over next generation 777 says chief technology officer
Boeing is said to be aiming at a decision about the further development of its 777 programme in the second half of this year according to Air Transport Intelligence.
ATI is quoting the airframer's chief technology officer John Tracy at the Aerodays 2011 conference in Madrid as saying that a decision on how the long-range twinjet would be updated will be made "quickly" after determining the company's future narrowbody strategy.
One of the potential avenues for an updated version of the 777 line is to replace its aluminium wing with a composite structure. Another option is to pursue a completely new successor, as the aircraft family faces increased competition from the Airbus A350 XWB, ATI said.
Airbus maintains the baseline A350-900 will enter service in 2013, with the -800 and -1000 variants to follow in 2014 and 2015 respectively. How Boeing will further develop the 777 programme depends on the available engineering resources, says Tracy, and this can only be decided once the future of the 737 is clear.
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