Boeing has launched the much-anticipated 787-10, the third member of the 787 family. The announcement at the Paris Airshow this week comes on the back of commitments for 102 of the new 787 variant aircraft from five customers across Europe, Asia and North America.
Launch customers for the 787-10 include Air Lease Corporation (30), GE Capital Aviation Services (10), British Airways (12), Singapore Airlines (30) and United Airlines (20).
The new 787-10 will fly up to 7,000nm (12,964km) with seating for 300-330 passengers.
“The aircraft’s operating economics are unmatched and it has all the incredible passenger-pleasing features that set the 787 family apart as truly special,” said Boeing CEO Ray Conner.
“The 787-10 is 25 per cent more efficient than aircraft of its size today and more than 10 per cent better than anything being offered by the competition for the future,” Conner extolled.
Design of the 787-10 has already started and international partners will be involved in detailed design in the months ahead. Final assembly and flight test of the 787-10 are set to begin in 2017, with first delivery targeted for 2018.
Meanwhile, the second member of the family – the 787-9 – is in final assembly and is set to make its first flight later this year.
