Boeing 787 Hours Away From First Flight

[Blue_Tires]

Source: KIRO-TV, Seattle

When the 787 takes off it will be very exciting, but when it quickly disappears into the clouds, the experts say there won't be much for us to see.

"To me, it's rather anti-climactic from that standpoint," said Aviation Industry Consultant Scott Hamilton.

Hamilton said while many will be celebrating the first lift-off, there will be serious anxiety for Boeing engineers because the true purpose for Tuesday’s test flight is to identify and work out problems while the Dreamliner's in the air.

The 787 is the very first all-electronic plane, made of some experimental materials, offering far better mileage and comfort for people onboard.

Hamilton said there are bound to be problems in the first flight.

“The question about indentifying problems is will they be little problems, or a big problem? And if there are big problems, what's it going to take to fix those big problems? And if it's a big problem does that mean the fix is going to create another problem over here? Or over there? " Hamilton said.

He said we may never hear about the little problems because those are for the engineers to work out in testing.

Aviation experts said the true Boeing business test is when the 787 is actually in use by airlines.

“They have to fly the distance, they have to haul the cargo, they have to haul the passengers, they have to do it for the right price. It has to be economically sound as well as technologically sound," said aviation buff Cary Jacobson.

Read more: http://www.kirotv.com/news/21967692/detail.html

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[Wwagsthedog]

1. Sure is a lot of hours.

[KamaAina]

11. I guess we'll all have to fly Airbus for the next few weeks

:P

[Hawkeye-X]

2. Looking forward to the live webcast at 11AM

MST.

I also saw my first 'live and loading' AN-124 today - never dreamed of seeing the 2nd largest cargo aircraft (its brother is the AN-225 - only one is operational) in Denver.

When I left the airport, I saw the nose up, and thought - "HOLY SHIT!" - so I decided to turn around and take a look at it again via the highway.

Since we make our rockets (Lockheed Martin Titan and Atlas) here in Denver, it was being loaded for Vandenberg AFB

[donheld]

3. very cool

[bluevoter4life]

4. Such a beautiful plane

I can't wait to see them in revenue service.

[liberal N proud]

5. Maybe it will make air travel fun again

I doubt it though, years of fear mongering has taken any fun out of travel.

[jmowreader]

6. There are "bound to be problems," but I don't think they'll be that bad

They know how to make a fly-by-wire airplane. More to the point, they know how to make a good airliner. I'm pretty sure they'll come back with a laundry list of shit they don't like, but that's to be expected.

I also notice from looking at the pictures they moved a procurement officer from Boeing's military division to Commercial Airliners...there's at least one part from each of the 435 congressional districts, plus a few from every friendly country in the world, in this plane. I am going to assume there's a reason why it takes four different companies to build the fuselage tube, for instance.

[Blue_Tires]

7. webcast link: scheduled for 1 p.m. EST

the 787 certainly has some fat nacelles...

http://787firstflight.newairplane.com/ffindex.html

[Baclava]

8. First "all-electronic" plane?

So you spill one cup of coffee on the keyboard and the whole thing goes ZZzzzzzzt?

[Blue_Tires]

9. UPDATE: Successful flight

http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/archives/188295.asp


some of the photos don't show just how far and wide the wings are swept back:

http://www.kirotv.com/video/21964704/index.html

[Baclava]

10. That's a pretty bird