(Washington) The American aircraft manufacturer Boeing announced Saturday in a press release the launch of the certification process for its 777-9 model, the largest commercial aircraft produced in the world since the Airbus A380 and the famous Boeing 747.
“We have begun the certification flight with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) personnel on board the aircraft. Certification flights will continue to validate the safety, performance and reliability of the aircraft,” the group said in a written statement.
Asked by AFP, the FAA declined to comment, but recalled that certification processes generally take several months.
This is an essential step for the aircraft manufacturer, which expects a lot from this aircraft, after a series of setbacks and air accidents which have seriously damaged the group’s image.
It has already recorded more than 530 orders for the entire 777-X family, which includes the 777-9, which is presented as an aircraft with lower fuel consumption.
It will be able to carry up to 426 passengers over 13,000 kilometers.
In the first six months of the year, the aircraft manufacturer delivered 175 aircraft, including 135 Boeing 737 MAX and 22 Dreamliner.
In the first half of the year, Boeing took 156 gross orders and suffered 41 cancellations. At the end of June, the order book for the commercial aviation branch (BCA) reached 6,156 aircraft.
The American manufacturer is going through one of the most troubled periods in its history.
Embroiled in a series of production and compliance problems for several years, it saw regulators put additional pressure on it after an in-flight incident in early January.
An Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 had a door detach mid-flight, with an investigation revealing it had been improperly secured.
In mid-April, four whistleblowers, including an engineer and former Boeing employees, testified before a US Senate inquiry to warn of “serious problems” in the production of Boeing’s 737 MAX, 787 Dreamliner and 777 aircraft.
But above all, the aircraft manufacturer is still being prosecuted for the crashes in 2018 and 2019 of two aircraft, causing the death of 346 people.
The aircraft manufacturer received a proposal at the end of June from the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which promised to return “no later than July 7” to federal judge Reed O’Connor, who is handling the case in a court in Texas (south).