Boeing has unveiled plans for its new 787-10 Dreamliner aircraft at the Paris Air Show, which is set to take to the air by 2018.
Design of the 787-10 has already started at Boeing, and international partners will be involved in detailed design in the months ahead.
Boeing has about 1,200 employees in the UK and purchases, on average, about $1bn from UK suppliers per year.
Final assembly and flight test of the 787-10 are set to begin in 2017, with first delivery targeted for the year after.
The announcement comes as its predecessor, the 787-9 jetplane, will be released by Boeing later this year, and Boeing commercial airplanes president and CEO Ray Conner, said the 787-10 will be the most efficient jetliner in history.
“The 787-10 Dreamliner will be the most-efficient jetliner in history. The airplane’s operating economics are unmatched and it has all the incredible passenger-pleasing features that set the 787 family apart as truly special,” he said.
“The 787-10 is 25 percent more efficient than airplanes of its size today and more than 10 percent better than anything being offered by the competition for the future,” he added.
The new 787-10 will fly up to 7,000 nautical miles – covering more than 90 percent of the world’s twin-aisle routes — with seating for 300-330 passengers, depending on an airline’s configuration choices.
With the focus on the battle between rivals Boeing and Airbus to secure orders at this year’s event, the 787-10 Dreamliner so far has 102 airplanes from five customers across Europe, Asia and North America.
It comes just a day after competitors Airbus secured a $8.1bn order from Doric.
