All three family members to be given more seats as Boeing continues to fine-tune new twinjet range
Boeing has edged up the planned seating capacity of all three 7E7 family members, but at the same time has launched a weight-saving effort as it continues to drive towards finalising the configuration by the end of June.
The capacity change takes three-class seating in the 7E7-8 to 223 from 217, and in the 7E7-9 to 259 from 257. In the dual-class configured -3 (which is the same size as the -8), the same changes expand capacity from 289 to 296. "The constant section got pulled forward and aft a bit. We've pushed the constant section as far as we could," says vice-president 7E7 Mike Bair.
The changes fall out of the last few weeks of "fine tuning" as well as input from airlines. The smallest relative increase is to the stretched -9 variant, which he says is "not going to be up to 300 [seats]", but it will be in the ±20 seat "fuzz band".
The manufacturer has unveiled the first full-scale, all-composite one-piece fuselage test section for the 7E7. Comprised completely of carbonfibre, including the built-in stringers, the representative Section 47 unit is 7m (23ft) long and almost 6m wide. It forms the first of several full-scale test sections that will be built for the programme by Boeing and its fuselage team partners Alenia, Kawasaki and Vought.
As efforts intensify to reduce weight, 7E7 chief project engineer Tom Cogan says the aircraft is "within 2.5%" of the manufacturer's empty weight, or operating empty weight (OEW) target. "We still have a bit of work to do towards our weight target, but it is well within the sort of targets we usually see at this point in a programme," says Cogan. He cautions that the OEW goal is aggressive, and that it is "not a slam dunk that we're going to make that target".
The target OEW remains confidential, but is expected to be similar to that of the 767-300. The maximum take-off weight of the 7E7-8 is meanwhile likely to be around 216,000kg (476,000lb) while that of the -9, which at 62m is around 8m longer than the -8, is set at around 226,800kg. The high- speed lines of the aircraft are now due to be frozen in February with the final design of the vertical fin almost fixed. It will be "reminiscent of the 'sharkey' look" originally proposed, says Bair.
GUY NORRIS / SEATTLE
Source: Flight International
