dreamliner

After what must seem to Boeing executives, not to mention aviation industry observers, like never-ending delays, the aircraft giant said on Monday that it has moved its much anticipated 787 Dreamliner to the flight line for final testing.

Currently, Boeing said in a release, the airplane--which was first rolled out to the public on July 8, 2007--is on the flight line, meaning it is being put through a series of rigorous tests designed to ensure its flight-worthiness. The next big step will be fuel testing, the company said.

As of Monday, Boeing said, the 787 Dreamliner's first flight … Read more

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but on Thursday Boeing announced revised first flight and first delivery dates for its long-awaited and much-anticipated, but also troubled 787 Dreamliner.

The aviation giant said it now expects the first 787 flight during the second quarter of 2009, and the delivery of the first Dreamliner in the first quarter of 2010.

Prior to Thursday's announcement, Boeing had said the first flight would be in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first delivery in the third quarter of 2009. But even those dates differed from what Boeing had predicted … Read more

Boeing has done a lot of crowing about its 787 Dreamliner--and had to eat its fair share of crow along the way, too.

Almost a year after rolling a bright, shiny mock-up of the plane out onto the public stage, then running hard into a series of supply chain problems that knocked ambitious assembly plans askew, the company now has a handful of Dreamliners at various stages of early readiness. The first of them this month finally went through its Power On sequence--technicians plugged in a power cart and started a sequence of bringing electricity into various systems, from … Read more

I got an e-mail Friday morning from my contact at Boeing alerting me to the fact that the aerospace giant delivered its 1,400th 747 Thursday.

The lucky recipient of the 747-400 freighter was GE Commercial Aviation Services, which plans to lease the jet to AirBridgeCargo Airlines, a Boeing press release says.

What really struck me about the news is that there are only 1,400 747s. It seems to me that every time I fly through Los Angeles, I see something like a couple hundred of the big planes on the tarmac, half of them owned by Qantas.

Of … Read more

I finally got around to watching the recent episode of HDNet's Dan Rather Reports titled "Plastic Planes," about alleged safety problems with Boeing's new 787 "Dreamliner" passenger jet. I was interested in the story for two reasons. As I've said here before, I want to buy one of these planes someday-- and secondly, I've long been fascinated with composite materials.

Vince Weldon, a former Boeing engineer, alleges that the composites used in the 787-- principally forms of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP)-- are brittle, insufficiently tested, dangerous in a fire, and vulnerable … Read more

Boeing rolls out the 787 Dreamliner (here). Yup, that's the airplane I want.

Often missed in the news coverage is that Boeing has yet to announce exactly how the 787's composite structures-- skin, wings, tail, etc.-- are made. Early in the project there were some very definite rumors that Boeing had decided to go with a new kind of carbon-titanium composite made from layers of carbon fibers alternating with layers of titanium foil. The combination was said to have more fatigue resistance and a longer service life.

But as far as I know, Boeing has never addressed … Read more

EVERETT, Wash.--If you've never partied underneath a jumbo jet, you should.

And that's what thousands of Boeing employees are doing right now, as the launch of the 787 Dreamliner concludes at the company's mammoth facility here--the world's largest building, by volume.

It's a pretty cool thing, I must say. After 45 minutes of obligatory celeb-speak--Tom Brokaw MC'd the launch event--the doors to the facility rolled open and there was the new plane, sparkling in the glorious sunlight.

And it took some time for the thousands of people here to make their way up … Read more

EVERETT, Wash.--How else to say it?

The 787 Dreamliner is here.

At just a couple minutes before 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Boeing cracked the doors open to its mammoth facility here, and up rolled the world's first 787.

Looking resplendent in the afternoon sunshine on a beautiful day, the 787 is a lovely plane.

It is both modern looking and reminiscent of the traditional Boeing style.

How well does it fly? Well, Boeing says it is energy efficient, profitable, and all kinds of other other great things. That will take some time to know for sure, since … Read more

EVERETT, Wash.--"This will make some rock concerts pale by comparison," Boeing spokesman Tim Bader told me with a smile as we rode a company-hired bus to the long-awaited 787 Dreamliner launch event.

I knew this was a big event since, after all, the 787 is Boeing's biggest plane launch in years. But how big? I had no idea.

Well, let's just say that the event looks primed to do justice to the building it's being held in--the company's factory here, which is the world's largest building by volume.

Indeed, thousands and … Read more