Only days after the official announcement of the retirement of the fleet of Boeing 777-200 aircraft of Delta Air Lines comes 25 years this week since the first Boeing 777-222 airplane with the registration number N777UA was delivered to United Airlines…
Is United Airlines Incorrect About Its Own History? Boeing 777 25th Anniversary
…but up for debate is when that airplane was actually delivered.
“Airfleets, Planespotters, and Jetphotos.net all have May 15, 1995 as the delivery date. I’ve also read several press clippings from UA from back in the day on the PMUA website that corroborated that date. The FAA also lists the airworthiness date as 5/15/95” is what FlyerTalk member UAL757222 posted in this discussion. “And the first flight was LHR-IAD, not the other way around.”
…but on Monday, “October 29, 1990, Boeing formally moved forward with the 777, with an initial order of 34 airplanes and 34 options by United Airlines. The first 777 was delivered to United on May 17, 1995, and the first flight was from Washington, D.C. to London”, according to this article written by Benét J. Wilson of Hub, which is the official Internet web site for news from United Airlines. “A month later, Boeing’s board authorized production of the Boeing 777-300, and on February 24, 2003, the 777-300ER completed its first flight.”
So which date is the actual 25th anniversary of the delivery of the first Boeing 777-222 airplane to United Airlines — on which the airline was the launch customer and received the seventh Boeing 777 airplane ever built, according to UAL757222 — today, Friday, May 15, 2020; or Sunday, May 17, 2020?
Summary
Whichever date is correct, congratulations to United Airlines on the 25th anniversary of the delivery of its first Boeing 777-222 aircraft.
Photograph ©2017 by Brian Cohen.
