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Boeing late last week received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to begin the third of five major phases of certification flight tests for its 777-9, which will be the largest single block of evaluations for the long-delayed aircraft program, two people familiar with the program’s progress tell The Air Current.
Certification and entry-into-service of the 777-9 has now slid to 2027, the company announced last month, seven years later than its original expected date of 2020. Boeing cited the voluminous documentation required for the program to commence each subsequent Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) phase of certification testing as forcing the most recent delay.
TIA is a multi-phase process which validates that aspects of the aircraft’s design are ready for collecting certification credit during a myriad of air and ground evaluations. Taking into account the 777-9’s protracted development, production ramp up, pace of TIA approvals and the remaining testing, the plane maker recorded a $4.9 billion non-cash pre-tax charge to its third-quarter earnings.
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