Boeing was allowed to use folding wings in passenger airplanes

Boeing was allowed to use folding wings in passenger airplanes. Previously such construction was used only in military aviation.

The Federal Aviation Administration of USA (FAA) has approved application of the folding wing construction in passenger airplanes Boeing 777X. Previously folding wings have never been serially installed on civil airplanes; they are used on war planes of naval aviation. Wings will fold only in the airport to reduce dimensions; during the flight mechanism will be fixed.

Boeing 777X is modified wide-body version of the airplane Boeing 777 that has to be launched on the market after 2020. New airplane is able to accommodate by 40 passengers more than the most capacious of existing Boeing airplanes. American consortium has already received more than 300 preorders, including 150 – from Emirates. Boeing 777X has the biggest wing span among the airplanes of Boeing Company. In common state it reaches 71.8 meters.

Boeing 777X needs folding wing to be able to move without any difficulties on usual landing strips and get into standard aviation parking shelters. The length of the folding parts of the wings will be about 7.3 meters. In such a way in folded mode wing span of the airplane will be 64.5 meters.

In the fall of 2016 Boeing has shown to the specific edition Aviation Week folding wing for new airplane. According to calculations of the engineers for folding and unfolding the wing not more than 20 seconds will be needed. During the flight movable part will be fixed by special locking mechanism.

Boeing is working on development of the folding wing for passenger airplanes since 1990’s. Company planned to mount with folding wings airplanes Boeing 777 in order to use shelters of outdated DC-10. The project of the new folding wing differs significantly from the initial project. Previous design had more difficult construction and had bigger weight. The length of the folding segment had to be 6.5 meters. The folding process was longer and made the airplane less driven.