Technical Characteristics - Boeing  KLM 777-200ER

Boeing 777 Fun Facts

• The first 777 entered service on June 7, 1995. Since then 777s have flown more than 1.25 million flights.
• There are 3 million parts in a 777 provided by more than 900 suppliers.
• On Feb. 15, 1996, the 777 was named winner of the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy by the U.S. National Aeronautic Association. The award honored the Boeing 777 as the top aeronautical achievement of 1995.
• The 777 is capable of cruising at altitudes up to 43,100 feet.
• Boeing engineers designed and electronically pre-assembled the 777 using computers. New laboratory facilities enabled the various airplane systems to be tested together as a single integrated entity in simulated flight conditions, before the first jetliner took to the air.
• The 777's landing gear is the largest ever incorporated into a commercial jetliner. With six wheels on each main landing gear, and two wheels on the nose gear, it has an unmistakable footprint.
• The Industrial Designer's Society of America presented its Industrial Design Excellence award in1992 for the 777-passenger cabin, and in 1993 for the 777's flight deck design.
• The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale recognized the Boeing 777 in April 1997 for achieving a speed and distance record for airplanes in its size and class. The 777 set the "Great Circle Distance Without Landing" record, traveling 10,823 nautical miles (20,044 kilometers), and it set the record for "Speed Around the World, Eastbound," traveling at an average speed of 553 mph (889 kilometers per hour).
• The 777-200LR (longer range) was named in 2000 to Popular Science magazine's top 100 list.
• The 777 is named in a song by Dire Straits Mark's Knopfler. The song is contained on the CD, "Sailing to Philadelphia."
• The 777 is the first airplane to have a rose named after it. The rose is deep purple-red with a citrus-like fragrance. It was developed by Olympia, Wash., Western Independent Nurseries.
• On May 30, 1995, the 777 became the first airplane in aviation history to earn U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to fly extended-range twin-engine operations (ETOPS) at entry into service. On that date, the FAA awarded the Pratt & Whitney-powered Boeing 777, 180-minute ETOPS.
• The 777 under went the most extensive flight-test program ever conducted on a commercial jetliner. The flight-test program included nine airplanes, which flew more than 7,000 hours and 4,900 flights.
• The data shared and transferred on the network during the design phase of the 777 program totaled 1,847,930,000,000 bytes of production data. If you collected the equivalent of all this data on 3.5-inch diskettes the stack of these diskettes would be 13,368 feet (4,074.5 meters), which is taller than Mt. Fuji in Japan, which stands 12,338 feet (3760.6 meters).
• Today's 777 operators enjoy a 99 percent dispatch reliability rate.
• The flight control system for the 777 airplane is different from those on other Boeing airplane designs. Rather than have the airplane rely on cables to move the ailerons, elevator, and rudder, Boeing designed the 777 with fly-by-wire technology. As a result, the 777 uses wires to carry electrical signals from the pilot control wheel, column, and pedals to a primary flight computer.
• There is approximately 50,000 cubic feet of volume in a 777-300, and 40,000 cubic feet in a 777-200.
• A lightly loaded 777 can accelerate from zero to 60 mph (96 kilometers per hour) in less than six seconds.