As American society became increasingly mobile and airplanes came to supplant trains for long-range travel, the number of passengers and the distance they traveled began to outstrip the capabilities of the older-generation Boeing 727 models. With contract for delivery to United Airlines, Boeing began designing a newer, larger model, capable of carrying more passengers on longer routes.

On this day, June 7, in 1995, the Boeing 777-200 passenger model made its maiden flight from London Heathrow airport to Washington Dulles, for United Air.

As with their previous 707 and 727 models, Boeing did not stop at making their planes for just Europe-US passenger flights. The 727 also came designed for extremely long range – their LR models boasted a cruising range of 9,395 miles while carrying 301 passengers. In 2005 an LR model traveling from Hong Kong to London Heathrow set a world record for distance traveled nonstop by a commercial jetliner — 11,664 nautical miles. Travel time was 22 hours and 42 minutes.