KerbalX

Mods

• Airplane Plus
• B9 Procedural Wings Modified
• Infernal Robotics - Next
• NeistAir
• SXTContinued
• Squad (stock)
• TweakScale - Rescale Everything!

Versions of this craft:

A really average aircraft called Boeing 777-300. Built with 167 of the most average parts, its root part is 25B77.

Built in a building in KSP version 1.6.1.

In the late 1980s, the Douglas DC-10s, and Lockheed L-1011s were becoming ancient and so, passenger variants were starting to be retired. Airbus went down the quadjet path which ultimately gave it a disadvantageous amount of the market compared with the Boeing 777. Boeing went for a stretch and on-steroid-version of the Boeing 767 that was originally called the Boeing 767-X, a trijet. However, airlines were quite against another trijet, and so a clean-sheet design for a large twinjet was born, under the name of Boeing 777. Therefore, cooperating with a bunch of airlines as well as the use of computer-aided design, a new and super efficient monster of a twinjet has been born. The Boeing 777-200 incorporated parts from all over the world, a sign of globalisation. The launch of the Boeing 777-200 also saw the launch of the most power turbine engine ever made.

The launch of the Boeing 777-200 was an absolute success. Many airlines eyed the Boeing 747 not for its capacity, but for its range, so many airlines actually flew the Boeing 747 with some seats empty. The Boeing 777 offered the range without as much capacity, opening more economically viable long routes, previously had a niche market which could not be economically flown with a Boeing 747, since the cost of flying a 747 did not change much depending on its capacity. However, there were more and more Boeing 747-100s, and -200s which are approaching their retirement age. In response to this surge of large long haul aircraft, Boeing stretched the 777-200 to increase capacity to better replace the 747s. This made the Boeing 777 very attractive for airlines, as it had the capacity of the Boeing 747 but the efficiency of a twinjet. The launch of the Boeing 777-300 and the -300ER marked the beginning of the end of the Boeing 747 passenger lineup.

The Boeing 777 family competed against the A340, MD-11, A330, and A350XWB in its life so far.

The A330 / A340 was designed by Airbus to serve the same role as the 777, as a replacement for DC-10s, and Lockheed L-1011s. Two new stretched and improved A300s were proposed by Airbus as a replacement for these ageing trijets, placing it as direct competitors to the proposed 767X program. These two jets became the A330 and the A340 family. Their development were simultaneous, but the A340 variant first flew earlier than its twinjet counterpart. The difference between the A340 and the A330 were primary just the number of engines, which affected their MTOW and range. Generally, since the A340 had increased thrust output, they had a greater MTOW and thus range, but had much higher operating fuel costs. Since engines are the most expensive single components to an aircraft, the A340-300 was around 6 million dollars more expensive than the A330-300. The size of the A330 placed it in a position to compete with the Boeing 777-200 and -200ER, but unlike the 777 family, the A330 family was not further stretched to increase capacity. Fatal mistake there, as it made the 777-300 without a competitor and dominated the market, a fact that Airbus did not quite realise until much later, but by then, the 777-300 subfamily had already cemented its reliability and efficiency.

The MD-11 was a desperate attempt at rebooting the DC-10 family. The DC-10 did not a have a great start to its career, as its development was wildly rushed, there had been many incidents which were a result of negligence in the development process. Such as, the cargo door incident (American Airlines Flight 96) where the cargo door exploded outwards. But despite of these early problems, the DC-10 ended up being reliable, but its reputation as an unsafe aircraft stuck. The MD-11 development was a second attempt at a trijet. It would be more efficient than Airbus’s A340-300 but less efficient than the 777 and the A330. Ultimately, this inefficiency led to the poor sales of the MD-11 and the eventual Boeing - McDonnell Douglas merger. However the MD-11 did prove to be reliable, but died with the ageing DC-10s and L-1011s it tried to replace, and the A340 soon joined them as well.

The A350XWB was originally didn’t mean to compete with the Boeing 777, but instead as a response to Boeing’s 787. The 787 was highly fuel efficient and made the A330 and 767s look like the trijets in the era of efficient airliners. Most of this fuel consumption improvement came from a composite material airframe, bleedless engines, raked wingtips, as well as integrating fuel saving technologies from the GE90 and adapting it to a smaller engine named the GEnx. This placed traditional metal airframes in a disadvantageous position. Airbus originally tried to downplay the 787, but airlines eventually pushed Airbus into producing a response against the 787. Airbus offered a re-engined and second generation A330, which would go on to become the A330neo (which I will eventually build. I have a lot of time on my hands in quarantine). But airlines were not impressed, so Airbus gave another shot at competing against the 787 with a clean sheet design. It would have a composite material fuselage, similar MTOW to the 777-300, a very wide body (which really is less wide than the 777), new engines, and composite wings. Despite all of these improvements, it still ended up less fuel efficient than the 787 (whoops) but offered greater comfort, and the stretched A350-100 ended up being a next-gen competitor against the 777 family.

Since the beginning of the program, Boeing had wanted to build ultra long range versions of the Boeing 777. After the originals, Boeing pursued such road. Originally, the second generation 777 was a shortened 777-200 with increased range, much like the Boeing 747SP, but the 747SP did not sell well, and airlines didn’t like the disgustang 777-100 (trust me, it looks horrible). So instead, Boeing pursued an ultra long range version of both the Boeing 777-200 and the 777-300. Boeing tretched the wings to produce more lift, used the more powerful GE90 engine, and an increased MTOW. This proved to be wildly popular (well, at least the 777-300 long range version), as it allowed airlines to operate even longer routes without requiring a stopover or an unfilled Boeing 747. This allows economical operation of routes such as NY - HK, Abu Dhabi - LA, Jeddah - LA, Washington D.C. - HK etc. The Boeing 777-300ER spawned a new type of routes now commonly known as ultra-long-haul flights, while spacious enough to create comfortable cabins, but not too spacious so that there is dead space onboard the aircraft. This made the 777-300ER the most popular 777 variant made by Boeing, with 838 orders at the time of writing this. Due to its popularity, but increasing disadvantage against new airliners such as Boeing 787-10 or A350-1000, Boeing decided to reboot the 777-300ER in the form of the 777X program, and the product of this development is the future Boeing 777-9.