RENTON, Wash. — Boeing celebrated the maiden flight of its 737 MAX 9, the next generation in its series of passenger aircraft.
The plane, which was assembled at Boeing's Renton plant, took off from the Renton Airport Thursday morning.
It has an intercontinental range of 3,500 miles, seats for more than 200 passengers and comes with a price tag of $117 million.
“What we're trying to do is make sure that we're giving any airline exactly what it’s looking for. For some airlines, it’s going to be the 8, for some it’s going to be the 9, and like you said, we're looking at a 10 that will be slightly larger,” said Boeing spokesman Doug Alder.
The plane, which competes against comparable Airbus planes in its class, sits 16 more people than its predecessor, the MAX 8, and can fly 600 more miles.
With constant worries of Boeing possibly moving some operations out of Western Washington, Boeing says assembly in Renton is here for the foreseeable future, even though parts come from around the world.
“Here's a staggering fact -- if we didn't receive any more orders for the 737, we still have 6 and a half years of production,” said Alder.
The first order of MAX 9s is due to go to Indonesia's low-cost regional carrier, Lion Airlines, next year.
They publicly pre-ordered 201 MAX 9s.
But before that happens, Thursday’s maiden voyage racked up the first miles out of many needed for FAA certification.
Boeing says you can expect to see the plane flying for the next 9 months to a year before it finally gets delivered.
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