777X: A 4-hr flight for Boeing. A giant leap for aviation

777X: A 4-hr flight for Boeing. A giant leap for aviation

Emirates is also backing the next big thing (literally and figuratively) in the skies.. I remember being on the first-ever A380 aircraft that Dubai's Emirates airline received from the Airbus factory in Hamburg, Germany, in July 2008.. The picture is still etched in my mind -- hundreds of Airbus employees in blue tees lined up on either side of the red carpet as Sheikh Ahmed and Tim Clark were escorted to the giant aircraft by Enders and Airbus COO John Leahy.. I was part of global media that flew back to Dubai along with Sheikh Ahmed, who made no efforts to hide the fact that he was delighted to add the world's largest passenger airliner to Emirates' fleet.. I remember Sheikh Ahmed telling a bunch of us eager journos that he believed that the aircraft was set to be one of the pillars of Emirates' future growth.. Set to retire from production next year, the A380 has left an indelible mark not only on Emirates' remarkable growth story but also on the global aviation landscape.. And now Emirates is backing the next big thing (literally and figuratively) in the skies, the Boeing 777X, the plane with the world's biggest jet