The Latest Boeing Airplane Model, the 787 Dreamliner, Lifts Off

Boeing's latest airplane model, the 787 Dreamliner, finally got off the ground on its maiden flight on December 15, about two years after the program first began to experience delays. Its maiden flight was at the company's Everett Paine airstrip in Washington state. The 787 is set to replace the company's aging 767 and 757 lines and is an innovator in many ways. The 25,000 people who gathered in Everett to watch it lift off said over and over again that it was truly historic that an airliner built almost completely out of composite materials, plastics and the like, should finally be airborne.

Excitement hung in the air much like it did for the Concorde's final flight all those years ago. The runway was dotted on either side with fire trucks and other emergency response facilities. The two-pilot crew on the new airplane model taxied the enormous aircraft out to one end of the runway and paused for quite a while to warm the engines up even as the engineers shifted from one foot to another in anxiety. It would be nice to say there was a terrible roar as it lifted off, but these are the newest breed of engines, and noise levels are pretty muted. But lift off it did. Boeing, in its press release, announced that the test flight was to check basic system performance. Evidently, it worked exactly as expected. It was to be a four hour test flight, but it was cut short to three, to head off worsening weather.

There are now six examples of the 787 in existence, built for testing that will run about three quarters of a year. During this period the airplanes will be run almost beyond their levels of endurance, at unnaturally high and low temperatures, and, in general, be tested to destruction - all in service of an FAA certification for passenger flight. FAA certification is standard for any new airplane model; it should be especially needed for an airplane that is as advanced and innovative as this one. Of course all aircraft do use a certain amount of composite materials - plastics and carbon fiber. This is the first aircraft to use it almost everywhere. In an age of runaway fuel costs, this is certainly a welcome development. The lightweight materials will require a fifth less fuel to keep the aircraft in the air. The composite materials, being stronger than metal, allow for larger windows and a good view too.

Manufacturing methods have changed for the Dreamliner as well. No longer is Boeing taking on the entire responsibility for manufacturing it. Suppliers to the company build entire sections of the plane, and transport them to the assembly line in South Carolina to put it all together. Who doesn't remember the way the Airbus A380 was delayed a few years ago for the well-publicized wire-length problem. Apparently, the camera on the airplane's tail was sent by the supplier with a connecting wire that was a few inches too short, and hence, deliveries on the new airplane model were stalled. Boeing has had a great deal of trouble with the supplier-builds-all requirements. News channels have reported how there have been problems with assembling parts that didn't quite fit properly. Still, for a new plane, Boeing has smoothed the way, and in a couple of years, Japan's airlines should probably be flying the latest in the world of commercial airliners.