Being the biggest commercial twinjet in the world, rocking the biggest commercial engines in the world, it was supposed to rule the air. The Boeing 777X (pronounced “triple-seven ex”) is the next major aircraft design from America’s premier planemaker, an updated variant of the venerable, but aging, 777. Given the company’s troubles in the last few years, it really needed to be a winner.
And yet, it hasn’t been. First scheduled to go to airlines in 2020, here we are in 2025 and not a single one has been delivered yet. In fact, as of January, the latest estimate from Boeing doesn’t have the plane going to customers until 2026.
What happened? From the looks of it, Boeing’s reach may have exceeded its grasp. The plane has been plagued with all sorts of component failures, which have delayed its FAA certification time and again. Worse, the numerous issues with the 737 MAX, including two deadly crashes and a mid-flight blown-out panel, have eroded regulators’ trust in the company. The 777X is still expected to be flying passengers soon, but until these issues get resolved, it remains in the testing stage.
What’s new with the 777X
The 777X is a major redesign of the old 777, first flown commercially in 1995. It’s primary goals were to be both physically larger to carry more passengers and burn less fuel per flight. For both of those things to be possible at once, the first thing Boeing needed were upgraded engines. Those came in the form of the massive General Electric GE9X, the biggest engines ever fitted to a commercial jet. In this case, bigger was in fact smaller, since the new engine was 10% more fuel efficient than its predecessor.
To push fuel efficiency even further, Boeing designed the 777X to reduce drag by having larger, curved wings. That wingspan, all 235 feet and 5 inches of it, turned out to be so big that it upped the plane from a Category E to a Category F. That’s a major problem, since most airports are only Category E. So the 777X is designed with folding wingtips, so that the plane can save 23 feet worth of wingspan on the ground and be able to land at airports without a size problem.
All in all, it’s the biggest commercial airplane in the world, or it would be, if it was actually flying commercially. If the day finally comes when it does, it will be at the apex of the aviation world.
The 777X keeps having problems
The 777X started having problems before it even flew. Its first test flight was supposed to be in 2019, but issues with the new (and massive) GE9X kept delaying it. The plane didn’t get into the air until January of 2020, the year it was originally slated to be finalized and delivered to airliners. Once it did get airborne, however, it kept on having issues, including with the avionics, the Flight Control System, and an “uncommanded pitch event” (i.e., the pilots lost control of the plane).
In 2021, a year after the original scheduled delivery date, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wisely decided not to certify such a troubled aircraft while these issues were still unresolved. Then, in the time Boeing was supposed to be resolving them, even more problems emerged. In October 2022, yet another fault with the engines grounded the entire test fleet. Separately, a door panel blew out during a mid-air stress test. In August 2024, cracks were found in the mounting structure for the engines, once again grounding the entire test fleet. They were only recertified to fly in January 2025.
Where does this all leave the 777X? As of this writing, Boeing believes it will be able to finally start deliveries in 2026 – a full six years late. Whether or not that’s true largely depends on whether Boeing can fix its plane and convince the FAA that it has done so.
