Issue 268: 787 Flies!

Boeing’s 787 takes to the skies

Boeing’s oft-delayed 787 Dreamliner took off on its first flight at approximately 10:27am local time on December 15 (approximately 5:27am December 16 AEDST) from Paine Field, Everett.

Over 10,000 Boeing employ-ees and members of the public watched the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 powered ZA001, accom-panied by two Boeing owned T-33 ‘T-Bird’ chase planes, take off from Paine Field’s Run-way 34L under grey skies. The flight landed at Boeing Field in Seattle, from where most of the flight test campaign will be conducted, just over three hours later at 1:33pm local time, with low cloud and poor visibility cutting the flight short from the planned five hour plus mission.