Forum Topic

777X

The new 777X flew yesterday for the first time. Another large jet coming our way.

Nicholas Beard ● 2026d13 Comments

The line is being electrified as far as Bristol and Cardiff. So we will go on pumping out diesel fumes. Not very green!

Nicholas Beard ● 2000d

Upgrading the railway is not a quick or cheap thing. Have you looked into the volume/demand to see if it is really worthwhile?Spending what would be presumably billions to avoid 5 flights a week during the summer seems horribly expensive. Have you looked into the costs?I am not convinced your idea has merit. The money would probably be better used elsewhere.

Christopher Gillie ● 2000d

Just read BA is launching flights to Cornwall. Should really have an electric railway.

Nicholas Beard ● 2006d

Steve, it is not the flying that is the problem, it is the fossil fuel.Telling people they cannot fly will not work. Telling people they can, instead of flying with fossil fuels, they can fly cleanly with hydrogen powered aircraft (as being developed on oxfordshire - reaction engines, who have so far had circa £100 million pound investment, so not a flash in the pan) is a realistic solution.I think you need to take on board that a hair shirt, self flagellation solution will be unpopular, and look instead to more optimistic problem SOLVING instead of problem AVOIDING routes to the huge environmental we face.

Christopher Gillie ● 2022d

"I cannot see any scenario whereby flights will reduce. Merely stating it "must" happen ignores all the the economic pressures around the world"It can happen and it must. Already people are feeling guilty about flying off on numerous holidays and they are cutting down. Likewise, people are sneering at the neighbours who buy a new Range Rover. For twenty year I was flying on three long haul business trips a year to AU/NZ and SE Asia - sometimes buying round the world tickets via LA or NYC or even Joburg.  Times have changed. First with Skype and facetime and various other conferencing platforms - it doesn't take much imagination to reduce travel quite radically.  Sure it was great to travel and see the world and taste the various cuisines but we MUST move with the times.The next generation recognises the problems and is already confronting them. Just looking at the radical increase in veganism confirms the trend. We should only fly when absolutely necessary and when all other avenues have been explored.

Steve Taylor ● 2023d

"No - we need to reduce the number of flights to save the environment"Good luck with that - I cannot see any scenario whereby flights will reduce. Merely stating it "must" happen ignores all the the economic pressures around the world that mean it cannot happen in a forseeable timeframe. It is a King Canute strategy.A much wiser option is to make the planes clean, as with the hydrogen engine under development in Oxfordshire, and make it cheaper than fossil fuels. This is already happening with renewable energy like wind and solar now.Offering people a choice between expensive and dirty versus clean and cheap is much more likely to succeed than offering people nothing at all.

Christopher Gillie ● 2024d

I've hated the 777 flights I've been on because they are very noisy and so couple unfriendly with 3-3-3 seating. Now airlines incl. BA are fitting narrow 3-4-3 seating (with narrow aisles too) in economy as if they were A380s which are 27 inches wider inside. So I doubt I'll ever try the new 777s, even if the new engines are quieter. Quite a lot of the better fuel economy the airlines boast about is from making their customers suffer: squashing an extra seat across each row on 777s and 787s. I would never fly 3-3-3 on a 787 or 3-4-3 on a 777.

Eric Baker ● 2024d

"but keep the total number of flights the same,"No - we need to reduce the number of flights to save the environment. Cheap flights are killing the planet. Hopefully more and more airlines will go bust.

Steve Taylor ● 2024d

Hope the new 777X is not like the current 777. Its the only aircraft that has an ending pitch that makes the windows vibrate and can feel the resonance through me like a bass guitar.

Raymond Havelock ● 2025d

Not necessarily - Newer aircraft are supposed to be quieter and more fuel efficient than older ones. If we replace older aircraft, but keep the total number of flights the same, we should end up with less noise, and less pollution. The differences are small and slow to deliver. Too slow to be acceptable really.I have my hopes on the engine being developed in Oxfordshire that uses hydrogen instead. They have received tens of millions of pounds of investment from BAE, Rolls Royce and Boeing, so it seems quite serious and not a pie in the sky project. I just hope it will be quiet as well as clean.

Christopher Gillie ● 2025d

I get the strong impression there are some contributors to this forum who will not be happy until Brentford is choc-a -block with thousands of flats,edifices to cheap, uniform and miserable design mostly,and sans a decent supermarket and overflown by an ever increasing number of noisy and polluting aircraft.Even then I am not sure they will be happy...

Keith Iddon ● 2025d

Yes it is, but still more noise.

Nicholas Beard ● 2025d

Surely this is a step in the right direction? A 2-engine plane with larger capacity. Maybe reducing the need for a 4-engine jumbo.

Frank DeWet ● 2025d