Boeing 777X 'almost barrel rolls' in spectacular footage from Dubai International Airshow

It's a move usually pulled off by fighter jets or smaller recreational aircraft, but over the weekend a barrel roll was performed by an aircraft nearly 80m long - well, almost.

Video of the move performed by a Boeing 777X at the Dubai International Airshow has fast been shared amongst the aviation industry online.

Watching the flight unfold, you could be mistaken for thinking you're about to watch Maverick take on Charlie in a debate about aircraft physics, but it's all real.

To put this into context, the Boeing 777X is almost the size of a 747 'Jumbo', and can carry well over 400 passengers. However, it's unlikely the aircraft would ever perform such a manoeuvre with people onboard.

The flying display put on by the Boeing 777X in Dubai was spectacular from the beginning, taking off near-vertically with no one onboard except for the pilots.

Despite impressing the audience both in attendance, and online, back on the ground Boeing will have to make some interesting moves in the boardroom too.

The 777X project is already three years late and its launch customer Emirates is beginning to lose patience with Boeing over the constant delays

The cashed up Middle-Eastern airline has already changed its order once, and Boeing will be wanting to pull off whatever manoeuvre it can to avoid Emirates downsizing its order for more than 100 of the "X" aircraft which is reported to be as much as NZ$118 billion dollars in total.