787
 

Was good to see it fly....apparently Airbus will make a competitor version to this, I heard on TV.

Rgds

Peter

Peter, where have you been for the last few years? Airbus have been planning the A350XWB, the so called competitor for a number of years. Though in reality the A350XWB sits half way between the 787 and the 777.

Nick, if you were flying an aircraft for the first time, when you have a lot of excess runway, would you rotate the aircraft quickly, or use a high rate of descent and then large flare for landing?

I think you'll find you can discount a lot of the way the aircraft flies on its test flights as being test procedure rather than the way it will ultimately be flown.

On the Boeing web site there is a video where the Chief Pilot describes his flight plan for the first flight. Also look at the Pilots' Bios , very impressive !

Hi Guys,

for those of you that havent seen it the full flight path it took is here http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BOE1

And at boeing.com for those that missed it is the video of the take off and landing

how bloody good was that

Hi all,
An amazing day here in Seattle. Years of waiting finally gave way to incredible joy as the 787 finally took to the skies.
No spotters here thought the airplane would fly today given the weather forecast. Last week was crystal clear but down to -12c however this week was the normal dreary low ceiling and consistent rain.
Rumors at Paine Field of the aircrafts immenent taxi were greeted with cheers through the festive crowd and the aircrafts stairs were pulled away at bang on 1000am PST. The frame started taxing at 1010, the scheduled time for the day and taxied straight along 16R/34L before the media and gathered crowd estimated at 25,000. After a few minutes of holding on the runway for the chase planes to come back around the 787 growled and started edging forward. She rotated in around 4500ft and stayed low and level until disappearing north of Everett, gear down and chase plane of each wing. Five minutes later the rain started and continued through the day. Plenty of time to drive back down to Boeing Field despite the new arrival time brought forward for the deteriorating weather and low ceiling now down to just over 1500ft. One of the smoothest touchdowns I've ever witnessed was greeted with yet more cheers from the South Seattle crowd.
This airplane is awesome! From a spotters perspective the lines are to die for. So sleek and graceful. The strobes are ultra bright LED's with a long lag time which makes catching double beacons on camera a sinch. You guys are going to have your hearts stop a beat when you hear the RR engines start up. They immediately sound like a 773 for the first few seconds before developing this distinctive and sexy deep growling pitch. Never heard anything like it before.
Been an interesting year in Seattle aviation. First P-8 flight a few months ago, the 777F, now the history making 787 flight and hopefully within weeks the first 748F. By the way the second 787 should take off in the next ten days and there are now 5 787's on the PAE ramp.

Here are some shots from the day:

Taxing for take off at PAE:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bfiguy/4188278657/sizes/o/

Lifting off on rotation at PAE#1:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bfiguy/...n/photostream/

Landing for the first time at BFI:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bfiguy/...n/photostream/

Taxing past the media pit at BFI:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bfiguy/...n/photostream/

Cheers to making aviation history,
Scott :)

Thanks for the images Scott, can't wait to see it for real, hopefully downunder soon on a test flight or two.

Thanks for the photos Scott - I am sure plenty of board members like myself would have loved to brave the cold to be there. I am sure it will be a flight you won't forget - next up, the 747-8!:)

Photo of Note: ZA001 as seen from T-33 chase planes
 

John Ostrower has got some already! HERE!