Boeing's 777-9X Comes Into Focus With A Massive Composite Wing

could them wings really get bigger??!!

10ft wider than the 747-8!! And with only 2 engines on it, its going to look a lot bigger than only 10ft wider! Geez! let's see it Boeing!

As earlier indicated on this blog I think we are seeing the evolution of the Boeing strategy. The 787 technology will be transitioned to all the new lines, the high profit 777 will be first. All lines will get the composite wings given the less pressurization problems in manufacturing and the great weight saving (20K lb for this 777 although longer and greater wingspan). The next logical move is to place those same composite wings on the new 737 replacement with the same interior widening.

From the business point of view, there is less disruption when a new plant is used for assembly while the others continue. The South Carolina plant may well be the site for this move if the 787 lines have caught up somewhat leaving the 787 and the NLRB in Renton. Look for consolidation of wing manufacturing in a single plant for all lines and look for it to be in the South or in Japan.

Could you stretch this plane any longer?!?!?! Its already like a stretch limo!

73.9m... could add another 6m and still fit in the 80m box airports design for. But I think it's more likely they'll do a 3m stretch and 3m shrink (splitting the difference between the 200 and 300).

when it comes to bigggg aircraft engines, as with other things***??? BIGGER IS BETTER!

Sebastien: It's typical for any aircraft with a 2nd door ahead of the wing to board via that door. More efficient due to a shorter walk and less contention in the aisle.

as to the size of wings, one day bi-polar magnetic flux drive will replace the wing along with their weight and drag. its not as far of as one might think. they now use it on japan's hi-speed trains. but they will usr the earth's magnetic field instead or electricity. it seems that u.f.o's may already do this.

@Sebastien...Mark has it correct...that way it takes twice as many dummies to halt the loading process by trying to put their entire wardrobe in the overhead. A few airports like AMS have bridges over the wing and can load from the back as well theoretically allowing three loading streams to be obstructed at once. Airports that use stands rather than jet ways like Nairobi load from front and back.

anything that can save 10% on fuel costs will help everybody out in the long run as using less fuel makes everything efficent and the composit wings will be able to handle more stress

If Boeing wants to keep the B777 product going, they need something "new". Only real direction would be larger and more economical B777. They should be able to take lessons learned on the B787 development to help the new B777 be less difficult to build. If Boeing does not develop this new B777, the Airbus A350 family is planned to be able to capture the market. Right now, the B777 has been a successful airplane. The concept in the article sounds good so hope that Boeing continues and makes a decision soon. I think they can get orders without too much a problem. Look to the carriers that already use large quantities of the B777 family and also use large number of B747s and A380s. I would guess a possible market for at least 500 aircraft of this size. It would replace the B747-400s that are getting old.

I am a Boeing person, I love what they do and they are good at what they do. Now I have rode on a 777-200 and a 300ER (& several many others) & they are wonderful planes. But when you look at Boeing's future aircraft designs, they have really nothing to show. Yeah they might have the BWB (Blended wing body) project going on but that has been in research for years, and the Dreamliner is just now certified. What they need is an all new plane and an all new design. If you also look at Airbus, they only have 1 really noticeable aircraft, the A380, and the only new design they have is the A350 XWB project. What they really (Boeing) need to do is to catch up with the game, if all they can come up with is a new engine option like the 737-7/8/9 MAX and a bigger more "fuel efficient" concept i.e the 747-8F/8I then that is all they will be stuck with.

Lets just hope this won't be the Dreamliner all over again.