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While some first-generation variants of the Boeing 777 family were optionally powered by the General Electric GE90 engines, Rolls-Royce Trent 800, and the Pratt & Whitney PW4000-112, subsequent generations were exclusively GE-powered. All three engines received a comparable number of orders for the first generation of Boeing 777s, with the Trent 800 being the most popular. And yet Boeing decided to exclusively power the second-generation Boeing 777-300ER and Boeing 777-200LR with the GE90.
The decisions were driven by a series of factors, including cost savings, market size, thrust requirements, timetable considerations, and more. At the end of the day, General Electric (now GE Aerospace) offered the best solution, while Pratt & Whitney didn’t offer a workable solution. Rolls-Royce did offer a solution, but there were more questions and issues compared with GE’s pitch, and the market size was not considered large enough for two bespoke engines. Here is what to know about why the Boeing 777-300ER only has one engine option.
Boeing’s 1999 Announcement Of Selecting GE90
In 1999, Boeing announced that it had selected the General Electric GE90-115B widebody turbofan to power its then next-generation Boeing 777-200X and Boeing 777-300X variants. At the time, James McNerney, president of GE Aircraft Engines, stated, “This is one of the most significant wins for GE Aircraft Engines in its long history.” NcNerney added that this represented the “successful culmination” of the strategy in the 1990s to “build a new centerline engine for the Boeing 777 aircraft family.”
In 1999, Alan Mulally, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group, stated, “All three commercial engine companies offered good solutions for the new longer-range 777 airplanes.” He then said that GE was chosen because its solution was evaluated as the best. Boeing stated the GE90 derivative was the best engine for the 777 family, “including technical, schedule, customer service, and business requirements.” General Electric said its engine was on track to enter service in 2003, and the 777-300ER would go on to enter service in May 2004.
The engine enabled the 777-200X (later 777-200LR) to fly another 1,200 miles (1,930 km) further than the older Boeing 777-200ER, which was then the world’s longest-range in-service aircraft. The variant helped some ultra-long-range, transpacific routes to open up. The Boeing 777-300ER was able to fly around 1,800 miles (2,900 km) longer than the Boeing 777-300, which first entered service in 1998.
Trent 800 Was The Most Popular 777 First-Gen Engine
The first generation of Boeing 777s included the Boeing 777-200, Boeing 777-200ER, and the Boeing 777-300. A total of 226 of these original aircraft were delivered with Rolls-Royce engines, 164 were delivered with Pratt & Whitney engines, and 170 with GE90 engines. On the face of it, this means that the Rolls-Royce Trent 800 was the most popular widebody engine of the trio.
A total of 88 Boeing 777-200s were delivered. Just 16 of these 777-200s were delivered with RR engines to Cathay Pacific, Emirates, and Thai Airways. The Pratt & Whitney PW4000 saw 63 Boeing 777-200 deliveries. These PW-equipped 777-200s were delivered to United Airlines, Japan Airlines, ANA, and Air China. Only nine Boeing 777-200s were delivered with GE90 engines to British Airways and China Southern.
|
First-gen Boeing 777s deliveries (per Boeing) |
Rolls-Royce |
Pratt & Whitney PW4000 |
General Electric GE90 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Boeing 777-200 |
16 |
63 |
9 |
|
Boeing 777-200ER |
168 |
93 |
161 |
|
Boeing 777-300 |
42 |
18 |
|
|
Total |
226 |
164 |
170 |
A total of 422 Boeing 777-200ERs were delivered. 161 of these were delivered with GE90 engines, 93 with PW4000 engines, and 168 aircraft with Rolls-Royce engines. Only 60 Boeing 777-300s were delivered, all of which were delivered with Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney engines. Those 60 aircraft included 42 Boeing 777-300s with Rolls-Royce engines and the remaining 18 with Pratt & Whitney engines.
This Is How Powerful The Boeing 777 Is
The aircraft offers some impressive capabilities.
Record-breaking Thrust Engine
General Electric (now GE Aerospace) stated in 1999, “the GE90 family was the only new centerline engine developed for the Boeing 777.” The engine was developed with the participation of France’s Snecma (now Safran), Italy’s FiatAvio (now part of Leonardo), and Japan’s Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (now IHI Corporation). It is the first GE engine in the 100,000-lbf thrust class. The Boeing 777 is the largest twin-engined aircraft ever built.
The engine was the first commercial engine with composite fan blades for double the strength and only a third of the weight of traditional titanium fan blades. It was the first engine to reach 127,900 lbf (rated at 115,000 lbf), setting a world record that wasn’t broken until its successor, GE9X, reached 134,300 lbf (rated at 110,000 lbf). For comparison, the highest-thrust engine Rolls-Royce currently builds is the 97,000-lbf-rated Trent XWB-97, which powers the stretched Airbus A350-1000.
Rolls-Royce went on to win exclusive contracts for the A330neo and A350, and it became one of two engine options for the Boeing 787. While it had success early on with the Dreamliner, its share has since collapsed. This has meant that Rolls-Royce has become the de facto widebody engine supplier for Airbus, GE has become the de facto widebody engine supplier for Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney has been sidelined and pushed out of the widebody engine market.
Why The GE90 Was Chosen
One of the main reasons why Boeing selected the GE90 is its size. For its second-generation Triple Seven, Boeing required the engine to have a thrust capacity over 100,000 lbf per engine. This was well beyond the capabilities of the PW4000 and Trent 800 families. GE offered the more powerful GE90 derivative with advanced technologies and a very large fan that met Boeing’s requirements. Rolls-Royce offered a solution (called the RB3025), but that was more of a concept than a firm solution.
Meanwhile, Pratt & Whitney was never really in the running as it did not pursue a competitive high-thrust PW4000 upgrade. This was partly because the family wasn’t considered competitive at that high thrust level. Having confidence in GE’s promised engine delivery timeline was a big factor for Boeing, as well as the launch customers. The Rolls-Royce engine was interesting, but there was more uncertainty around its delivery timetable.
As time went by, another problem with developing an alternative engine for the Boeing 777 is that not only would such an effort be extremely expensive, but the engine is already a very efficient one. This means that any other engine would need to be significantly better. Since it entered service, the engine has been progressively improved, meaning that it has achieved a 3.6% reduction in fuel burn since its initial launch specification. GE also says the engine has achieved a 99.98% reliability rate.
Rolls-Royce Trent XWB Vs. General Electric GE9X? Which Engine Is More Powerful?
The GE9X is more powerful than the Trent XWB, although there is more than thrust that makes a good engine.
Perceived Limited Market Size
At the time, it was estimated that the market size for the second-generation was around 500 aircraft. Boeing stated in 1999, “Boeing projects the market for the 777-200X and 777-300X to be about 500 airplanes. The size of this market would not support development of more than one engine.” This wasn’t considered large enough to support the costs of the engine manufacturers developing two bespoke engines for the aircraft, or Boeing’s costs in adapting the aircraft for two engines.
As of the beginning of 2026, Boeing has delivered 1,204 Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing 777F, and Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, with another 54 Boeing 777Fs remaining to be delivered. This may have been large enough to fund two engine options, but that wasn’t known at the time.
Developing a bespoke engine for a given aircraft type is incredibly expensive. Rolls-Royce only agreed to develop the Trent 7000 for the Airbus A330neo because Airbus granted it exclusivity. Otherwise, the market size was considered too small to be worth the engine maker’s investment. The same was true from GE’s point of view; without exclusivity, it wasn’t worth the enormous costs of developing bespoke engines for the A330neo or A350, even though Airbus asked GE for an A350 engine.
GE To Exclusively Power Boeing 777X
Another factor was that the main launch customers for the second-generation Boeing 777s were Emirates, Qatar Airways, and others that already operated GE engines. Airlines often want to preserve engine commonality in their fleets, and so they would likely have wanted to purchase GE engines. The decision by Boeing to exclusively use the GE90 was a major windfall for GE, allowing it to mature the engine and claim the third-generation 777X and be better placed to become the main engine option for the popular Boeing 787.
As fate would have it, the Boeing 777-300ER turned out to be one of the most popular widebody commercial aircraft ever made. This meant that airlines all around the world purchased GE90 engines, allowing GE to entrench itself. As Airbus developed the clean-sheet Airbus A350 to compete with the 777, Boeing was compelled to upgrade its Boeing 777 once again to the third-generation Boeing 777X.
Once again, GE found itself well-positioned to be the engine-maker of choice for this new aircraft. It already had a mature engine it could develop (into the GE9X), and customers were already using the GE90 engine, meaning there would be logistical continuity. Rolls-Royce offered interesting proposals, but once again, GE was the safe option, and the market size for the large jet is limited. Qatar and Emirates together account for around 60% of all the Boeing 777X aircraft that have so far received firm orders, meaning these two airlines have a large say in the matter.
