FedEx Express, Boeing collaborate on next ecoDemonstrator tests

FedEx Express will provide a Boeing 777 freighter as the next test platform for Boeing’s ongoing ecoDemonstrator program, set for 2018.

In this fifth iteration of the ecoDemonstrator program, a new 777F made for Memphis-based FedEx Express will be equipped with a compact thrust reverser designed to save fuel; flight deck improvements will be implemented and tested; and prototype airplane components constructed by new material waste-reducing manufacturing methods will be subject to inflight evaluation.

Boeing said the flight testing will last about three months before the aircraft is returned to FedEx Express.

Boeing launched the ecoDemonstrator program in 2011 as a means to test environmental technologies. Over 50 technologies have been tested on previous ecoDemonstrator testbeds, which have included a 737-800, a 787-8, a 757 and an Embraer E170.