First look at folding wings on Boeing's 777X jetliner - 777x-painted-folding-wingtip-142.jpg ...

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(CNN) — So you want a plane with huge lift capability and the wingspan to match,
but you also need it to fit through regular airport gates.

What do you do? If you're Boeing and the craft is the new 777X, you switch up
the game by adding folding wings.

The world got its first glance at this unique innovation on October 3, during a
live webcast from Boeing's factory floor in Everett, Washington, where the first
flight-test 777X is being built.

The aircraft is the 777-9X variant, the first of its next-generation 777s, and
when it takes to the air it will be the world's biggest twin-engine jetliner.

It's a wing thing

Once completed, the 777-9X is to have the widest wingspan of any aircraft in the
company's 102-year history: 235 feet, five inches.

Its hinged wingtips alone measure 12 feet, with locking pins to prevent them
from folding during flight.

The wings give the jetliner extra lift, similar to that of a giant sailplane
glider, helping the plane to save an overall 12% more fuel than the Airbus A350,
according to Boeing.

Now, you might have seen something similar on military aircraft -- such as the
F/A-18 fighters which need to squeeze onto US aircraft carriers -- but when it
comes to commercial planes this wing thing is the first of its kind.

In fact, the US Federal Aviation Administration had to draft new regulations
just for the 777-9X and its sister craft, the 777-8X.

While its wingspan is pretty epic, it's not the biggest out there.

It's a little smaller than an Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger
airliner, which has a span of 261 feet, five inches.

And it's a good bit less than the 385-foot span of the upcoming Stratolaunch,
which will be used to launch rockets and space planes into orbit. When that
flies, it will be the world's largest airplane.

Static test plane

October's wing reveal follows on the heels of the "fully assembled" static
777-9X test plane being rolled out at the Everett facility in September.

While it will never take to the skies, the static aircraft is to undergo almost
a year of testing on the ground to verify the structural strength and accuracy
of the design.

Although the airframe is largely complete, it's missing some components, such as
engines and an avionics system.

"Static test is our opportunity to verify the design of the structure and
load-bearing components of the airplane, ensuring the final product is safe for
our customers and the flying public," says Doreen Bingo, Boeing Test and
Evaluation 777X Test Program manager.

"Using a full-scale airplane, we'll run various load conditions on the wings,
gears, the struts and the fuselage."

The wings have been tested at one-and-a-half-times the designated load during
previous static tests, resulting in a wing flexing more than 26 feet.



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