Man finds out what happens if you fly the Boeing 777X with its wingtips pointed up
Published on Nov 22, 2025 at 1:41 AM (UTC+4)
by Henry Kelsall
Last updated on Dec 05, 2025 at 6:39 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
A YouTuber found out what happened when you fly the Boeing 777X airliner with the wingtips up.
The Boeing 777X is a new airliner that has been developed by the American aircraft manufacturer and is set for introduction in 2027.
A feature of the 777X is its wingtips, which can fold upwards, and they are designed to allow the jet to fit at airport gates designed for older aircraft.
They reduce its wingspan, but YouTuber Swiss001 wanted to find out how it flew with the wingtips folded upwards in one of his most recent videos.
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Why the Boeing 777X has folding wingtips
The Boeing 777X has larger wings than earlier aircraft, making it longer than some airports can handle.
These new two-part wings allow for extra-efficient performance; however, it does bring up an interesting issue.
The wingspan is 71.8 meters, but folding the wingtips brings that back down to 64.8 meters.
That could be crucial when the aircraft arrives at a Category E airport.
That’s important because most airpots in the world are Category E, but the fully extended wings make the 777X a Category F aircraft.
This would limit the number of airports it could fly to, given the length of its wings.
Taxiways, gates, and other infrastructure would be out of bounds for the new jet.
The folding wingtips are an ingenious way of getting around this issue.
Flying the Boeing with the wingtips up
So how does the jet fly with the wingtips up?
Swiss001 did so in X-Plane, using a recently released model of the aircraft for the simulator.
Some jets do have wingtips that are up in flight by design.
The caveat is that with such a basic version of the jet, it might not fly like the real thing.
In the simulator, though, the aircraft flew normally with the wingtips folded up.
Boeing may well have factored this into the design of the wings on the real airliner.
While test flying is continuing, the 777X has suffered heavy delays.
The 2027 introduction date is more of a hope right now than a certainty.
But it will be interesting to see the folding wingtips in action when the jet enters commercial service.
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Henry joined the Supercar Blondie team in February 2025, and since then has covered a wide array of topics ranging from EVs, American barn finds, and the odd Cold War jet. He’s combined his passion for cars with his keen interest in motorsport and his side hustle as a volunteer steam locomotive fireman at a leading heritage steam railway in England.
