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
