1. Boeing 777x First Flight
2. Boeing 777x Orders
3. Boeing B777x Orders

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Boeing’s innovation in the flight deck continues, with the introduction of touchscreens in the 777X forward displays; a first in the air transport industry.

With touchscreens being used on smarts devices by people around the world every day, and pilots already bringing tablets into the flight deck, making the 777X even more intuitive and easy for pilots is a logical next step.

Boeing 777x First Flight

The Boeing 777X was supposed to fly in the first half of 2019. However, the plane faced delays due to GE’s GE9X engines. In October, Boeing said that 777X deliveries were delayed until 2021.The.

“We want to design a flight deck that pilots are going to be familiar with and that will provide the best interaction experience for them,” said Mark Nikolic, Boeing Flight Deck Human Factors Engineer.

The 777X’s new technologies will allow pilots to work more efficiently while maintaining significant operational commonality with today’s 777.

Boeing has tested touchscreen technology on flight decks in simulators for the last five years and in 2014, used the ecoDemonstrator flying testbed to give pilots real-time flight experience with touch technology in the forward displays.

“We find that touchscreens perform as well as or better than current devices in the flight deck for interacting with the displays,” said Brian Gilbert, Boeing Flight Deck Integration Lead.

Boeing requirements for touch capability include bezel features designed to provide bracing and added stability in turbulence, and pilots can also interact with displays with rotary cursor controls.

Boeing’s 777X flight deck hardware is capable of supporting multiple touch points. This means two pilots can simultaneously interact with their half of the lower display.

38% of B777X firm orders are 'soft'

Boeing said that just over a third of its firm orders for the B777X can be seen as 'soft' and can't be counted anymore as firm due to accounting rules. 118 of the 309 orders have been moved to the so-called 'ASC 606 adjustment' column. These adjustments are based on the contractual commitments issues (delays), but also the financial condition of the customers.

Boeing 777x Orders

Currently, the official B777X-backlog is made up by All Nippon Airways (20), British Airways (18), Cathay Pacific (21), Emirates (115), Etihad (25), Lufthansa (20), Qatar Airways (60), Singapore Airlines (20) and Undisclosed (10). Just eight of these are for the B777-8 (all for Etihad), while the remaining 301 are for the B777-9.

According to several aviation analysts the uncertain orders are from Etihad Airways, which already said it was planning to take delivery of only six B777Xs instead of the 25 it has on order. Emirates is also said to be willing to downsize its order in favor of the B787, just like the airline did in 2019 when it decided to swap orders for 35 B777Xs to the B787. The last airline flagged as uncertain is presumably Cathay Pacific, which is severely impacted by the Corona-pandemic and already deferred delivery to 2025 onwards.

Last month, during it's annual results presentation, Boeing announced that the first delivery of the B777X has now been moved to 2023. This is due to a combination of delays with the aircraft itself, as well as deferrals by customers due to the current (passenger) aviation crisis.

Boeing B777x Orders

Photo by Boeing.