7E7 to have interchangeable engines

Boeing, which is still choosing engines for its new 7E7 commercial plane, is considering engines that may be interchangeable, Boeing’s commercial airplane unit president said on Wednesday.
“We are moving to engines being more interchangeable,” Alan Mulally told attendees at an industry luncheon in New York. “Anything that makes the airplane easier to move around” is what the company is looking for, he said.
Previous models of Boeing aircraft were designed to accommodate only one type of engine, but the 7E7 design will allow owners to replace an engine with the same model or a different one within 24 hours, according to a Boeing spokeswoman.
Boeing is looking at engine proposals from Pratt & Whitney, General Electric and Rolls-Royce. The company is on track to make its final selection in the first half of this year, Mulally said.
Mulally added that the company is planning an assembly-line process that would push out a 7E7 in three days.
“Can you imagine what that will mean for the cost structure?” Mulally said at the airplane industry’s Wings Club gathering.
The plane is expected to launch this year, “sooner, rather than later,” said Mulally.
Boeing’s Chief Executive Harry Stonecipher had told analysts and investors in early February that the airplane manufacturer was leaning toward offering its airline customers a choice between two engines for its proposed 7E7 jetliner.
Offering only one engine would cost Boeing less and result in big payments from the engine manufacturer winning the business. But some airlines do not like having only one engine supplier, and this would make the plane harder to sell, he said at that time.
The plane is the first all-new craft in a decade to be offered by the world’s largest manufacturer of airplanes. It is being designed to offer airlines greater fuel efficiency and improved economics over current aircraft.
Suppliers are anxious to learn who will be chosen to offer products on the plane, since the market is expected to be about 2,000 planes.