The airplane accomplished a roughly 2-1/2-hour flight over Washington State, returning to Renton Municipal Airport close to Seattle at 12:38 p.m.

The primary flight heralds months of testing and security certification work earlier than the jet is anticipated to enter service in 2023.

In an uncommon departure from the PR buzz surrounding first flights, the occasion was saved low-key as Boeing tries to navigate overlapping crises attributable to a 20-month grounding within the wake of two crashes and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Boeing’s 230-seat 737-10 is designed to shut the hole between its 178-to-220-seat 737-9, and Airbus’s 185-to-240-seat A321neo, which dominates the highest finish of the narrowbody jet market, value some $3.5 trillion over 20 years.

Nonetheless, the market alternative for the 737 MAX 10 is constrained by the jet’s vary of about 3,300 nautical miles (6,100 km), which falls wanting the A321neo’s roughly 4,000 nm.

Boeing should additionally full security certification of the airplane underneath a harder regulatory local weather following two deadly crashes of a smaller 737 MAX model grounded the mannequin for almost two years – with a security ban nonetheless in place in China.

Boeing has carried out design and coaching adjustments on the MAX household, which returned to U.S. operations in December.

Boeing Industrial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal stated the corporate is producing about 16 737 MAX jets a month at its Renton manufacturing facility. Boeing is engaged on security enhancements for the 737 MAX 10, together with for its air knowledge indication system and including a 3rd cockpit indication requested by European regulators of the “angle of attack,” a parameter wanted to keep away from stalling or dropping carry. Deal’s feedback had been supplied to the media by way of a pool reporter inside a Boeing plane supply heart.

Whereas the smaller MAX 8 is Boeing’s fastest-selling jet, gradual gross sales of the MAX 9 and 10 fashions have put Boeing at an obstacle to the A321neo.

Boeing has deserted plans to tinker with the 737 MAX 10 design, however is weighing a bolder plan to switch the single-aisle 757, which overlaps with the highest finish of the MAX household.

Even so, Boeing says it’s assured within the MAX 10, and it’s stepping up efforts to promote extra of the jet, with key targets, together with Eire’s Ryanair.

Clients embody United Airways with 100 on order. Though sources say United is weighing a brand new order for a minimum of 100 and even as much as 200 MAX, its requirement for big single-aisles will likely be served by Airbus – reinforcing the market break up.

The flight, watched by dozens of workers however just about no guests as Boeing sought to downplay the occasion, showcased a revamped touchdown gear system illustrating an business battle to squeeze as a lot mileage as potential out of the present technology of single-aisles.

It raises the touchdown gear’s peak throughout take-off and touchdown, a design wanted to compensate for the MAX 10’s further size and forestall the tail scraping the runway on take-off.