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The letter cites numerous concerns about lack of data and the lack of a preliminary safety assessment for the FAA to review. “The FAA will not approve any aircraft unless it meets our safety and certification standards,” the agency said in a statement Sunday.

Incredible footage has revealed the moment that the world's biggest jet engine took to the skies for the first time, ahead of its planned maiden commercial flight in 2020. The huge GE9X powerplant, which is as wide and tall as the fuselage of a Boeing 737, is being built for the latest version of the firm's long-haul 777, the 777X 'megaplane'. General Electric has now begun flight trials of the prototype, after delays caused by technical problems stopped tests originally planned for late last year.

A door blew off a Boeing 777X as the new plane was undergoing what was supposed to be its final structural inspection by federal regulators. The test is meant to push the plane beyond its limits. Engineers had the plane pressurized and on the ground. They loaded it up well beyond capacity and bent its wings in an extreme manner, in a way almost certain to never happen in the real world. As the ground test was underway and as engineers and FAA inspectors watched, a door blew off the plane. Sources tell KOMO there was a stunned silence after...

Boeing's latest innovation is an extremely thin, folding wing that will offer unprecedented aerodynamic efficiency, according to a news release from the company. The Transonic Truss-Braced Wing...extended wingspan of 170 feet...increased top speed from a planned Mach 0.70-0.75 to Mach 0.80 by modifying the wing sweep and optimizing the supporting structure, changes which allow the truss to carry lift more efficiently. Boeing has developed the wing in partnership with NASA over the course of nearly a decade. Their work is part of the Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research program, which encourages the development of less noisy, more efficient aircraft that...

Boeing is set to debut its biggest plane ever next month, and the 777X has finally been paired with the gargantuan GE9X engine that will propel its flight. The plane is currently housed in Boeing's Everett, Washington, assembly plant, where pictures show it looming over workers as they prepare it for its maiden flight. The GE9X engine is the biggest turbine engine in the world. At roughly the size of an entire Boeing 737's fuselage, it was subjected to test flights last March when a single turbine was hitched to a 747 testbed. The engine includes a composite fan more...

Singapore Airlines Ltd (SIAL.SI) said it would launch the world’s longest commercial flight in October, a near-19 hour non-stop journey from Singapore to the New York area. The 8,277 nautical mile (15,329 kilometer) flight from Singapore to Newark, New Jersey with 161 business class and premium economy seats will eclipse the 7,843 nautical mile Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Auckland as the world’s longest, according to airline data provider OAG.

The separate complaints focus on the timing of the union vote that narrowly approved Boeing’s 777X contract extension.Four individual Machinists at Boeing have filed separate complaints with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking to overturn the 777X contract extension vote that passed by a slim margin last week. Anne Pomerantz, NLRB regional attorney, said the agency will investigate the charges, gather evidence and decide if any action is warranted. The process typically takes approximately 12 weeks, she said. The union members filed the unfair labor practices claims against the national headquarters of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), which...

SEATTLE/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing's machinists on Friday narrowly approved a crucial labor contract that secured thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity for Washington state but will cost workers their pensions. The vote of 51 percent to 49 percent to accept the deal means Boeing Co will build its new 777X jetliner and wings in the Seattle area, where Boeing has built aircraft for more than 90 years. Had the workers rejected the offer, Boeing would have considered making the successor to its popular 777 widebody jet elsewhere, and had received offers from 22 states interested...

If the Machinists union and Boeing could agree to a contract deal, Washington state would secure decades of work fabricating the 777X airliner’s advanced wing and assembling the jet here. Yet the union is divided and in turmoil over what the company calls its best and final offer. Two distinct, passionate arguments boiled up among the 31,000 local Machinists after their leaders Thursday rejected the revised offer. One vocal faction, including the local leadership, is dug in, unwilling to give up its hard-won gains from the past by making concessions on pay and benefits. Another group, including officials from the...

After talks broke down between Boeing and the Machinists union over placing the 777X work in Washington state, the union’s lead negotiator said the membership will get a chance to decide on what the company had said was its last offer.Washington’s bid to place work on the 777X jet in the state may not be dead yet, despite the abrupt collapse Thursday afternoon of negotiations between Boeing management and the Machinists union. In a phone interview late Thursday, the Machinists union’s lead negotiator said rank-and-file membership will get a chance to decide on the Boeing offer that the union leadership...

Boeing has issued a formal request for proposals (RFP) to 15 locations around the United States that will bid for the work of building its forthcoming 777X jet, according to a source close to the discussions. Washington state is one of the 15 sites under consideration. The others include both existing Boeing locations and new “greenfield” sites, the source said. Boeing spokesman Doug Alder confirmed Saturday that the RFPs were sent out late Friday afternoon and into the evening.

Shares of Boeing (BA) climbed into the green early Monday after the jet maker unveiled fresh orders for its upcoming 777x and struck a new supply deal with a major firm in the United Arab Emirates. The Chicago-based Dreamliner maker racked up roughly $100 billion in orders with Middle Eastern carriers on the first day of the 2013 Dubai Airshow. The 342 orders in the fast-growing market doubled those awarded to rival Airbus.

DUBAI—Emirates Airline on Sunday placed a $76 billion order with Boeing Co. BA +0.73% at the Dubai airshow for 150 of the manufacturer's new 777X aircraft, helping make the model the largest product launch in commercial jetliner history. The Dubai-based carrier, which is the world's largest international airline by capacity, is the biggest scalp so far for Boeing as it is the largest operator of the manufacturer's current 777 fleet, with more than 120 in service. Qatar Airways, meanwhile, placed an order for 50 Boeing 777X worth $19 billion, and Emirates said it had purchase rights for a further 50...

SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing's history in the Pacific Northwest dates back more than a century, when William Boeing purchased a Seattle shipyard that would become his first airplane factory. In recent years, however, those ties have been fraying, first with the company shifting its headquarters to Chicago, then with the development of a new production line in South Carolina. Now, the relationship between Boeing and Washington state is near the point of unraveling after a fiery debate among machinists this week led the workers to reject a long-term contract. On Thursday, Boeing made good on its threats and said it...

This will probably come as no surprise to those who watched the federal government stepping in to help unions strongarm manufacturers in the last few years, but Boeing is back in the news with more labor issues. The aerospace giant is getting ready to unveil their newest jet – the 777X – which had been widely expected to be built in the Seattle area as so many of their other lines have been. But at the last minute, the unions decided the deal wasn’t fat enough for their tastes. Boeing workers’ rejection of a new labour deal has sent the...

EVERETT -- A couple hundred Machinist union members held an unofficial rally Monday outside their union hall near Paine Field to protest a contract extension offer negotiated in secret by the Boeing Co. and the union's international leadership.The message: Boeing's promise to build the 777X in Everett, in exchange for significant changes in retirement and health benefits, among other things, will undercut the union and is a bluff by the Chicago-based company's leadership."They're trying to kill us. Period," said Wilson Ferguson, a delivery mechanic on the 737 line in Renton and president of Local A. "At the end of the...

Machinists are expressing anger at the terms offered by Boeing to win the 777X work for Everett. Boeing said in a statement that the company is ready to "pursue other options" outside Washington.In a dramatic end to a meeting with hundreds of disgruntled Machinists at the Seattle union headquarters Thursday night, District 751 President Tom Wroblewski tore up a copy of Boeing’s contract proposal and said he would try to have it withdrawn. “I know this is a piece of crap,” Wroblewski said about the proposed new eight-year agreement that Boeing says will determine whether the forthcoming 777X jet is...