Guy Norris/SEATTLE
Boeing has begun talks with potential 777-200X customers over lower-lobe options for its ultra-long-range derivative of the twinjet, with sleeping space for up to 40 passengers and crew.
Boeing is now seriously examining the long-discussed possibility of passenger sleeping accommodation, needed mainly because of the 20h potential mission range of planned new variants. Virgin Atlantic has already opted for beds on the rival Airbus A340-600.
"We're starting to think about accommodation in the lower-lobe and crew-rest areas," says Boeing 777-200X/300X programme manager Jeff Peace.
By late September, the company had held talks with five potential -200X customers and was planning to talk to another six.
Three main configurations are under study, covering alternative cargo-hold passenger-sleeping and crew-rest layouts. One option provides space for one freight pallet, two LD3 containers and a 24-bed passenger sleeper compartment in the forward section. A crew-rest compartment, holding bunks for six to seven people, would be fitted in the aft section which is thereby reduced to holding just ten LD3s.
Another option allows for room for four LD3s and four freight pallets in the forward lower lobe, the same crew-rest module in the aft area and space for six LD3s as well as for 17m3 (600ft3) of bulk cargo. It also offers an area for two 9,200litre auxiliary fuel tanks. The fourth option is centred around a 40-bed forward section with a rest area for passengers and crew. The aft section would be dedicated to cargo and auxiliary fuel.
Boeing believes that the airlines will sacrifice cargo capacity on the long, thin, routes for which the 298-seat -200X is being designed, as part of their marketing strategies for the intensifying battle on services across the Pacific.
Mock-ups of the lower-lobe passenger sleeping accommodation have already been built at Boeing's Everett site, with help from an interior-design company, Walter Dorwin Teague, and the UK's Hunting Aviation.
Source: Flight International
