The 7E7 design has replaced the earlier Sonic Cruiser that was offered as Boeing's answer to the Airbus A380 mega-airliner. In fact, it appears that the Sonic Cruiser, a new generation of high speed subsonic passenger aircraft after the (supersonic) Concorde, existed only in artwork and no engineering had actually taken place. Many commentators suggested it was a trial balloon offered to test the waters for a higher-speed airliner. The design proved to be uninteresting to the airlines, and was generally ignored.
Instead, the Boeing teams turned to efficiency for their new design. The Airbus A320 had proved to be a major shock to the industry when its lower operating costs proved very popular, and many of the smaller airliners like the 737 and MD-80 proved unable to compete. The 7E7 appears to attempt to redress this by introducing a new design in the mid-size class with the same sort of lower operating costs. The 7E7 is designed to be some 10-15% more efficient on general routes than competing designs. The 7E7 is sized to be able to replace both the 757 and 767 on the production lines.
On December 16, 2003, it was announced construction would be done in Everett, Washington, employing 800 to 1,200 employees.
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