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Boeing extends 777 range
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February 29, 2000: 2:04 p.m. ET
Longer-range jet, to fly more than 10,000 miles nonstop, due in 2003
By Staff Writer Chris Isidore
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Boeing Co. announced the launch of a new longer-range version of its popular 777 wide-body jet Tuesday, saying it will be the world's longest-range commercial aircraft.
The plane will use larger wings with more fuel capacity and an additional fuel tank in its belly to extend the range an additional 1,200 to 1,500 miles over existing models of the plane, without any significant reduction in passenger capacity.
The new version of the 777-200 announced Tuesday will have a range of 10,100 miles, enough to fly nonstop from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to New York.
 Part of the design change puts crew rest areas and some storage needed for items like additional meal service in space above the cabin, so there is no loss of either revenue seats or cargo space. A 10,100-mile flight takes about 18 hours and requires additional crews.
Boeing (BA: Research, Estimates), the world's largest aircraft manufacturer, has been facing tough competition for new orders from Airbus Industrie, the European consortium that has offered comparable long-range aircraft, the A340-500 and -600. Airbus spokeswoman Barbara Kracht said the Boeing plans come as no surprise and should bring no significant additional competition.
"The only surprise is they announced no orders," she said. "When we launched the A340-500 and 600 in 1997, we had seven customers lined up for 100 planes."
The first A340-500 and -600 are due to be delivered in 2002, while the new longer-range 777 is due for delivery in September 2003.
Company still dogged by engineers strike
Tuesday's announcement comes while Boeing faces its longest strike by technical and engineering employees. Talks broke down Saturday with the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, the union that has been on strike since Feb. 9. A union spokesman said Boeing's announcement is little more than a public relations move in the face of a strike that has stopped or greatly slowed development of some new military aircraft, as well as the delivery of commercial jets now in production.
"There are no engineers and technical workers to work on any new projects in the Boeing company," said Bill Dugovich, a spokesman for SPEEA. "Every new order needs to be approved by engineers. They're the ones who tell customers if the jet can be customized as they wish."
Dugovich and Boeing spokeswoman Barbara Murphy agreed that much of the design work for the 777 already has been completed, but additional work is needed before production can begin. But Murphy said the immediate design work that needs to be done is on the engines and is being handled by General Electric Co. (GE: Research, Estimates), the sole supplier of engines for the new aircraft. Jack Welch, chairman and CEO of GE, joined Phil Condit, Boeing chairman and CEO, at the announcement Tuesday.
"We'd certainly rather have all our employees here celebrating with us, including our engineers," Murphy said. "But GE is on schedule. We will ramp up design effort latter part of the year. We certainly hope the strike is over by then."
Shares of Dow component Boeing fell 11/16 to 36-5/16 in trading Tuesday, while shares of GE, another Dow component, gained 2-5/8 to 132-1/16. 
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