Boeing Century outtakes: Rolling a Boeing 777

Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 7, 2016

The Boeing Co. celebrates its 100 birthday July 15. We had more material than we could fit in The Daily Herald’s special section, the Boeing Century. So, we’re putting some of the most interesting leftovers online. Enjoy! And check out our special section this Friday.

In 1997, Boeing was developing its 777-300, a bigger version of what already was the biggest twinjet in the air. Boeing engineer Larry Schultz was on some of the certification flights, including stall demonstrations for European regulators.

A European test pilot and Boeing pilot were flying the 777 at about 14,000 feet over the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

At one point, “the European test pilot entered a flaps-down stall faster than was intended,” Schultz recalled.

“The airspeed got down to about 50 knots, at which point, the 777 is nothing more than a 500,000 pound rock,” he said. “It rolled upside down in a couple seconds.”

Nearly on its back, the 777 started falling. Everything not tied down in the plane was up in the air. Fortunately, all the people on board were had full harnesses on, so everyone stayed in their seats.

Schultz could see the cockpit and pilots on his work station’s television screen.

“I could see the pilots were doing all the right things to recover, while I tried to keep my briefcase and other stuff from flying around,” Schultz said.

The Boeing pilot, Joe McDonald, put on the speedbrakes to slow the plane down, while the other pilot rolled the plane right side up and back to level flight. The plane had dropped about 7,000 feet in a few seconds.

The European pilot simply said, “Well, I guess we will have to look at the data on that one.”

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.