The design of the twin-engine Boeing 777 aircraft was launched in the late 1980s with the objective of capturing the long-distance air travel market. The aircraft was designed to fill a gap between the four-engine 747 with a passenger capacity of around 400 and the twin-engine 767 with a passenger capacity of approximately 200. During the development of the 777, Boeing had to face competition for the 300-350 passenger 777 aircraft from the newer generation of planes introduced by rival manufacturers, i.e. the 323- seat MD-11 from McDonnell-Douglas which replaced the DC-10 with more efficient engines, and the four-engine A-340 and the twin-engine A-330 from Airbus. The airlines which worked with Boeing in the development of the 111 forged an agreement early on in the design that its fuselage would be much wider than that of the MD-11, A-330 or A-340.
(a) Speculate about the implications of the larger fuselage on the strength, weight and power requirements.
(b) Speculate about the implications of the larger fuselage on damage tolerance considerations and design against fatigue fracture.