AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 287 / 299

Plate 287 of 299 · Modern age · Long-haul wide-body airliner

Boeing 777

777-236ER, G-YMMJ, painted as G-YMMJ, a Boeing 777-236ER of British Airways, delivered new in November 2000 and flown on the airline’s long-haul routes from Heathrow: a wide-bodied twin-engined airliner with a long, swept low wing with raked tips, two Rolls-Royce Trent 895 turbofans in large nacelles on pylons under the wing, six-wheeled main-gear bogies, a tall swept fin, a low-set tailplane and a blade-shaped tail cone: white upper fuselage over a midnight blue belly, split along a level line, the Chatham Dockyard Union flag on the fin above a red tail cone, the red and blue ‘speedmarque’ and ‘BRITISH AIRWAYS’ titles on the forward fuselage with a small coat of arms aft of them, grey wings and tailplane, blue nacelles with metal intake lips and Rolls-Royce badges, ‘G-YMMJ’ on both sides of the rear fuselage and under the port wing, and ‘MJ’ near the fin tip, as photographed between 2012 and 2026 (no 777 is preserved in a UK museum; shape from Boeing’s own airport-planning drawings of the 777-200/200ER, with the Trent nacelle built from Boeing’s Trent clearance figures and photographs because the drawings show the Pratt & Whitney engine; the coat of arms is simplified, and the small stencils, door placards and walkway lines are left off).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-YMMJ, a Boeing 777-236ER of British Airways, delivered new in November 2000 and flown on the airline’s long-haul routes from Heathrow: a wide-bodied twin-engined airliner with a long, swept low wing with raked tips, two Rolls-Royce Trent 895 turbofans in large nacelles on pylons under the wing, six-wheeled main-gear bogies, a tall swept fin, a low-set tailplane and a blade-shaped tail cone: white upper fuselage over a midnight blue belly, split along a level line, the Chatham Dockyard Union flag on the fin above a red tail cone, the red and blue ‘speedmarque’ and ‘BRITISH AIRWAYS’ titles on the forward fuselage with a small coat of arms aft of them, grey wings and tailplane, blue nacelles with metal intake lips and Rolls-Royce badges, ‘G-YMMJ’ on both sides of the rear fuselage and under the port wing, and ‘MJ’ near the fin tip, as photographed between 2012 and 2026 (no 777 is preserved in a UK museum; shape from Boeing’s own airport-planning drawings of the 777-200/200ER, with the Trent nacelle built from Boeing’s Trent clearance figures and photographs because the drawings show the Pratt & Whitney engine; the coat of arms is simplified, and the small stencils, door placards and walkway lines are left off). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.7 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (777-200, -200ER, -300ER); engine, crew and dimensions are for the 777-236ER, G-YMMJ modelled here.

History

The 777-236ER

At the end of the 1980s Boeing needed an airliner to fill the gap between its 767 and the much larger 747, and to answer the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and the Airbus A330 and A340. It chose a twin, betting that engines big and reliable enough would let a two-engined aircraft fly the long ocean routes that had been left to three- and four-engined types. The 777 was launched in October 1990 with an order from United Airlines, and Boeing invited a group of airlines, British Airways among them, to help shape it. It was the first Boeing airliner designed entirely on computer, without a full-size mock-up, and it brought fly-by-wire controls to a Boeing airliner for the first time. Its engines, from General Electric, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce, were the largest and most powerful jet engines yet built.

The first 777 flew from Everett on 12 June 1994 and United put the type into service in June 1995, on the route from London Heathrow to Washington. British Airways, the launch customer for the General Electric GE90, flew its first 777s from November 1995, and in February 1997 it received the first of the longer-range 777-200IGW, soon renamed the 777-200ER. The stretched 777-300 followed in 1998 and the -300ER, with even more powerful GE90-115B engines and raked wing tips, in 2004; it became the best-selling version of all, and with the 777 Freighter it kept the line busy for two decades.

British Airways has flown more than fifty 777s, -200s, -200ERs and -300ERs, and for thirty years they have been the backbone of its long-haul fleet from Heathrow and Gatwick. On 17 January 2008 one of its Trent-engined 777-236ERs, G-YMMM, lost power on both engines on the approach to Heathrow when ice in the fuel blocked the fuel-oil heat exchangers; it landed short of the runway and everyone on board survived, and the heat exchangers were redesigned. Boeing has delivered more than 1,700 777s, and the much-changed 777X, with a new composite wing and folding tips, is to follow it. No 777 is yet preserved in a UK museum.

This airframe

777-236ER G-YMMJ

G-YMMJThe airframe modelled

G-YMMJ is a 777-236ER with Rolls-Royce Trent 895 engines, delivered new to British Airways in November 2000 and flown on the airline’s long-haul routes from Heathrow. British Airways’ 777-200ERs come in two families, the G-VIIx aircraft with General Electric GE90s and the G-YMMx aircraft with Trents; the -200ER was chosen to represent the type because British Airways has flown it longest and in the largest numbers. No 777 is in a UK museum, and G-YMMJ was chosen because it is well photographed in the airline’s standard colours between 2012 and 2026. The model shows it as those photographs do: white over a midnight blue belly, split along a level line, the Chatham Dockyard Union flag on the fin above a red tail cone, the red and blue ‘speedmarque’ and ‘BRITISH AIRWAYS’ titles on the forward fuselage, grey wings, blue nacelles with metal intake lips and Rolls-Royce badges, ‘G-YMMJ’ on both sides of the rear fuselage and under the port wing, and ‘MJ’ near the fin tip. Its shape comes from Boeing’s own airport-planning drawings of the 777-200 and -200ER; those drawings show Pratt & Whitney engines, so the Trent nacelles were built from Boeing’s Trent clearance figures and photographs. The coat of arms is simplified, and the small stencils, door placards and walkway lines are left off.

Where to see one

Not on charge

British Airways flies the 777 from Heathrow and Gatwick, but no 777 is preserved in a UK museum.

All 299 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.