Seattle (Reuters): Boeing successfully conducted a test flight of their latest and largest single aisle civilian jet aircraft, the Boeing 737 MAX-10, last Friday.
The 737 MAX-10 is the latest in a series which had earlier suffered from near global grounding by the aviation authorities of several nations banned it after the unfortunate accidents and safety incidents involving another smaller model. The success of the first flight is a testament to months of testing and safety certification work before the jet is expected to enter service in 2023.
The aircraft completed a roughly 2hours and 30 minutes flight over USA’s Washington State, returning to Renton Municipal Airport near Seattle at 12:38 p.m. local time.
Boeing’s 230-seat 737-10 is designed to close the gap between its 178-to-220-seat 737-9, and Airbus’s 185-to-240-seat A321neo, which dominates the top end of the narrow-body jet market, worth some $3.5 trillion over 20 years. Though, the 737 MAX-10 lags behind in terms of range to the A321neo in terms of range.
Boeing must also conclude thorough safety certification of the plane under a tougher regulatory climate, hot on the heels of two fatal crashes of a smaller 737 MAX version, which led to grounding the model for nearly two years.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal said the company is producing about 16 737 MAX jets a month at its Renton factory. Deal also stated, “We’re going to take our time on this certification.”
The test flight was witnessed by dozens of Boeing employees but, virtually no visitors as Boeing sought to downplay the test flight. The event showcased a revamped landing gear system illustrating an industry battle to squeeze as much mileage as possible out of the current generation of single-aisles. It raises the landing gear’s height during take-off and landing, a design needed to compensate for the MAX 10′s extra length and prevent the tail from scraping against the runway during take-off.
