Ortberg Says ETOPS Testing Will Not Delay 777-9 Delivery Timing

While the final stretch to certification of the long-delayed Boeing 777-9 is turning out to be taking longer than expected, the aircraft-maker insists that initial deliveries remain on track for early 2027.

For a program that once targeted service entry as early as 2020, holdups are nothing new. But this time, with the final few phases of certification flight underway or in sight, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg is bullish on progress, despite recent assertions from FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford that approval for the big twinjet might slide into early next year.

• No 777-9 deliveries prior to completion of ETOPS work
• TIA 4B test phase is underway

Bedford’s comments, which came in late May during the CAPA Airline Leader Summit in Charleston, South Carolina, were considered surprising, as Boeing had previously suggested that flight tests were on track for completion in time for the award of an amended type certificate by year-end.

“I think we’re all just teetering on the edge of the year, and how much breathing space we want to give our teams to get this thing done,” Ortberg tells Aviation Week. “There is no big delay in the program right now; it’s going to be around that time. We will see.”

Boeing’s schedule as it moves toward certification and deliveries is paced by the FAA’s phased release of Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) flight-test blocks. The latest and penultimate block, TIA 4B, was approved in early June and covers further tests of avionics as well as final evaluation of the aircraft’s stability and control characteristics.

TIA 4B is “a big slug of flight testing,” Ortberg says. “After that comes TIA 5, [extended-range twin engine operations (ETOPS)] and function and reliability testing, which are generally done at the same time,” he adds. “So it’s just a matter of all the work we’ve got to get done now.”

TIA 5 “will unlock a small number of systems certification tests with our final software updates,” Boeing added in a statement.

Ortberg, who also provided an update on 777-9 progress at the Bernstein annual Strategic Decisions Conference in New York on May 27, acknowledged that all but ETOPS should be wrapped up by the end of December. “You should expect that we will hopefully be done with our flight-test program by the end of the year, with the exception of ETOPS,” he said. “ETOPS is going to extend into next year.”

Some operators, such as Lufthansa, which hopes to operate the first 777-9s beginning in March, say they can fly the aircraft on some initial routes that do not require ETOPS—a set of performance standards that permit flights on long-range routes that are more than 60 min. away from a diversion airport.

However, clarifying Boeing’s position, Ortberg says: “We do not plan on making any deliveries pre-ETOPS completion. Customers for this airplane want an ETOPS configuration, so we’ve just got a lot of work to do between now and the end of the year. The team’s trying to get this thing accomplished as fast as they can.”

The 777-9 ETOPS campaign is expected to hew to the model established in late 2003, when two 777-300ERs made 38 flights totaling 267 flight hours over a period of several weeks. Simulated system and engine failures were included in the flights, eight of which involved shutting down one of the aircraft’s GE Aerospace GE90-115B engines for prolonged periods. The longest such test lasted 6 hr. and 29 min.—the longest engine-out demonstration flight ever in support of ETOPS certification.

The 777-300ER ETOPS testing also demonstrated range capability. The longest flight, between Sydney and Recife, Brazil, lasted 18 hr. and 25 min. Other stops included Longyearbyen, Norway; Yakutsk, Novosibirsk, and Petropavlosk, Russia; Easter Island, Chile; and Keflavik, Iceland.

FAA authorization to begin ETOPS also includes an agreement with Boeing and GE Aerospace on the corrective action plan for the GE9X engine midseal durability issue that emerged in January. However, both companies have reiterated that the fix will not affect delivery timing next year.

“We understand the issue, and we’re working through the fix,” Carlos Perez, GE Aerospace vice president of commercial engine systems engineering, said to reporters on May 19. “We don’t expect it to really impact the entry [into service] of the program. The flight-test program is continuing to be ongoing, and we’ve been supporting Boeing every step of the way through that.”

“Obviously, at the same time we are discussing with the regulator the changes that might be necessary here,” he added. “So I think we’re bullish on what we’re going to be able to go do here. We don’t expect any significant challenge from that discussion.”

Adding to the pressure of scheduling the start of the complex ETOPS campaign, Boeing’s flight-test department is under a heavy workload. It is simultaneously completing certification work on the two final members of the 737 MAX family, the -7 and the stretched -10, while flying four development 777-9s.

“We have worked with the FAA in doing some activities around resource planning, which I think has been very beneficial for both of us to make sure that we both know what work is coming down the pike as we are aligned on the resource allocation,” Ortberg says. “As we get the 737-10 and -7 complete, we have a common flight-test team, [and] that flight-test team will be able to allocate some more resources, so we’ll see.

“There’s an aggressive schedule to get that work done, and that’s why I think we’re being a little bit cautious on picking a date here,” he adds. “We’ll see it’s in that zone, and I feel pretty comfortable that we’re making the progress we need to make. We have not uncovered any new airplane issues here, and so we’re hoping that’s the case going forward.”

Timing of the completion of the 737 derivatives certification is, however, coming into focus. “There’s clearly light at the end of the tunnel here, and we’re going to get these certification programs done,” Ortberg said at the Bernstein conference.

“Certification flights are scored for both the -7 and the -10, and we have authority from the FAA for the entire flight-test regime now, so we don’t need any more TIA approvals from the FAA,” he said. “So it’s just a matter of getting through that flight-test program, and we’re clicking them off as we speak.”

Boeing’s two 737-10 development aircraft, 1G001 and 1G002, have recently been used for a final set of flight tests to gauge avionics as well as stability and control. The sole 737-7 development aircraft, 1E001, is meanwhile winding down test activity, having undertaken a functional check flight on May 28. The 737-7, which was originally due to begin deliveries in 2019, is expected to clinch certification slightly ahead of the -10, the service debut of which was first scheduled for 2023.

“We’re really banging this down, and that will get to the end of the year, where we’ll get the certification, so we can really support next year’s deliveries,” Ortberg said. “We’re building -10s, so we need to get that certification done so that we can start those deliveries.”

With flight tests of the engine anti-ice system—the major redesign originally pacing the remaining MAX derivatives certification effort—now behind it, Boeing’s final checklist includes “just the normal things you do at the end of the flight-test program,” Ortberg says. “We’re pretty confident that we’re not going to see any hiccups here in the remaining regime of flight testing.”

—With Christine Boynton and Jens Flottau in Rio de Janeiro