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

The 787 Dreamliner is here.

The world's first 787 Dreamliner is here. It was rolled out in Everett, Wash., on July 8, 2007, or 07/08/07

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

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 the first passengers won't get on a Dreamliner until next year.

The 787 Dreamliner has more pre-orders than any other jetliner in history

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

But for now, we can say, well, the 787 is here.

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 thousands of seats were set up for the event in order to welcome hundreds of media, thousands of 787 team members and other VIPs.

There's still a little while to go before the event begins--a countdown timer on the huge screen in front of us says 30 minutes to go. But the anticipation is rising, and there's a plane geek buzz going on that I've never felt.

Perhaps it's got something to do with the 787 that's under construction that everyone wandered by on their way in. A Boeing media escort told me that it will be 787 number two.

And if that's not product placement, I don't know what is.

SEATTLE--I was driving into Seattle from the airport today, on my way up to Boeing's Everett, Wash., factory--the world's largest building by volume--for the official launch of its brand-new 787 Dreamliner, when I saw something interesting off to the side of the highway.

For anyone who's driven in from Sea-Tac airport, the sight of Boeing Field on the west side of Interstate 5 is very familiar. But today, I noticed that the "Dreamlifter" was parked on the tarmac there. The Dreamlifter is the mammoth plane--it's a modified 747-400 with a huge hump--that flies in the 787's fuselage.

So this was a pretty cool sighting, I thought, given my destination. The only problem was that I was on the freeway and, well, that's not the safest place to take pictures from.

But I had a little time, so I jammed over to the nearest exit and backtracked, turned up a hill and drove around until I found a spot that looked like a promising place for a vista onto Boeing Field.

Sure enough, at the end of a dead end dirt road, I found it, on the other side of a fence, and through a wide swath of blackberry bushes and other weeds: a perfect view of the airfield and the plane.

Boeing's Dreamlifter is the plane that flies in the 787's fuselage.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

After yelling out some rather loud exhortations of my glee, I snapped off a few dozen pictures.

Then I noticed some small planes taking off and landing from the airfield, and as one of them taxied in, I was able to get it in the same frame as the Dreamlifter.

Boeing's Dreamlifter, which is based on the 747, dwarfs nearby small planes.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

And, wow. Seeing the two planes in the same frame gave a pretty good sense of just how big the Dreamlifter really is.

Anyway, stay tuned for more coverage later today of the 787 launch event itself. It should be even bigger.

If you're like me and you're a fan of airplane porn--and who isn't?--then this weekend is a "dream" come true.

On Sunday, which is July 8, or 07/08/07, Boeing will formally unveil its newest uber-plane, the aptly named 787 Dreamliner.

This new plane, which seems to be selling like hotcakes, and which is stealing a lot of thunder from Airbus and its A380, will be able to ferry 210 to 250 passengers as far as 8,200 nautical miles.

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner will roll out officially on July 8, 2007, otherwise known as 07/08/07.

(Credit: Boeing)

The Dreamliner rollout will be a big, fancy shindig at Boeing's Everett, Wash., facility, where the company also makes 747s, as well as other planes.

The event begins Friday and goes through the weekend, and includes lectures, receptions and other gatherings. But the big moment will be at 3:30 p,m. Sunday, when all the world gets its first view of the completed 787. And I'll be there reporting back to you, dear readers, as well as preparing a photo gallery. So please, stay tuned.

Take that, Airbus.

That's what Boeing said Tuesday at the Paris Air Show, when it announced an $8.8 billion, 60-plane sale of its forthcoming and much-anticipated 787 Dreamliner to the leasing company ILFC, according to Reuters.

The deal comes on the heels of Airbus announcing Monday more than $30 billion in orders, a move much needed by the beleaguered British/French plane consortium. Its hugely hyped A380 super-airplane has disappointed critics because it was very late to market and incredibly over budget.

But none of that mattered to Boeing, which happily showed that the 787 Dreamliner has some chops of its own. The plane is expected to be formally unveiled at the Everett, Wash., facility where it is being built--and where Boeing also builds its 777 and, of course, 747s--on July 8. Watch this space for live coverage of that event, as well as photos of the unveiling.