First Boeing 777 is retired from service:

Seems pretty early to retire an 18 year-service bird. Is United still flying 777s from like 1994 (presumably 24 years non-stop)?

 

I cannot believe that we started work on that airplane 30 years ago and my time is racing away from me. They are still building it like mad in Everett and the new 777X is coming along so I'll be interested in seeing how it performs. Don't have a good feeling about folding wing tips.

 

Amazing plane! I fly them all the time to Hong Kong now. Just booked a flight to Europe a few minutes ago on one.

I like the Dreamliner also for long hauls.

 

Built in 1994, was LN 1. So had extensive, and harsh, test flights for a couple yrs. I'm sure they got a very good deal on it. Been quite a few -200's scrapped and many more in storage.

Interesting that Cathay converted it to RR Trent from the PW4000, although the Trent was the lightest engine available.
https://www.planespotters.net/airframe/Boeing/777/B-HNL-Cathay-Pacific/er1pT3Lp

 

I assisted in giving an extensive factory tour of a large group of BMW engineers. We were near the end of the route and one of the BMW engineers said that they hadn't seen anything that was impressive or that had taught them anything. We were passing the number one 777 that was being refurbished after its strenuous flight test and one of the Boeing engineers conducting the tour stopped the group near the 777 and said, " Do you see this airplane! It flew perfectly on its first flight and survived a 1000 hours of being beat up in its certification flight tests. We didn't go through a couple of hundred of them to eliminate failed design features like YOU DO WITH YOUR CARS! AND not only that, a customer bought it and will put it into service after it is refurbished!" No comment from our German guests. I remember looking at number one and it was a beat up bird.