NEWS
The long awaited count down has begun. Boeing’s cutting-edge 787 Dreamliner soared on December 15 in a milestone first flight the US aerospace giant hopes will prove a gamechanger for the global aviation industry. The newest member of the Boeing family of commercial jetliners took off from Paine Field in Everett, Washington. At 10.27 am local time. After approximately three hours, it landed at 1.33 pm at Seattle’s Boeing Field. The airplane flew to an altitude of 15,000 ft and airspeed of 180 knots, or about 333 km per hour, customary on a first flight. Boeing has 840 orders for the 787 Dreamliner, and in October 2009, the company announced plans to build a second assembly line for the aircraft in North Charleston, South Carolina.

VIEWS
On December 15, the Boeing leadership must have heaved a sigh of relief on witnessing the first flight of the Company’s 787 Dreamliner, after an excruciating delay of over two years. The first flight provided the much needed boost that Boeing’s highly ambitious programme was after all on some kind of schedule again. “Today is truly a proud and historic day for the Boeing Company and the global team who have worked tirelessly to design and build the 787 Dreamliner—the first all-new jet airplane of the 21st century,” said Scott Fancher, Vice President and General Manager of the 787 programme. “I assure you the 787 will be the gamechanger that it was meant to be.”

The mid-size, twin-aisle Dreamliner is Boeing’s first new model in more than a decade. The central element of the revolutionary design is based on the copious use of lightweight composite materials instead of aluminum to improve fuel efficiency and reduce maintenance costs. The 787 is indeed a radical departure in aircraft design. It is a bold step on Boeing’s part but the company thinks it has done its homework well and the composites are ready for these kinds of applications. Intensive use of composites make the airplane much lighter than other planes of similar size and, therefore, more fuel efficient; with Boeing claiming that the 787 will use 20 per cent less fuel than aircraft of comparable size.

Boeing also claims that as the composites do not fatigue or corrode, maintenance costs would be cut by as much as 30 per cent. In addition, because of its lightweight, there would be less airport charges. Not surprisingly, the aircraft, which promises to carry 250 passengers over extremely long distances, has been a great hit among airlines, who ordered some 840 planes, worth around $140 billion (Rs 6,38,470 crore). Boeing claims that the cumulative orders from 55 customers make the 787 “the fastest selling all-new jetliner in aviation history”.

In the decade old debate between a ‘hub-and-spoke’ and ‘point-to-point’ models for air travel, while its rival Airbus chose the former for its superjumbo, A380, with a capacity of up to 850 passengers, Boeing chose the latter to create the much smaller 787, albeit with a brand new design and long-distance point-to-point capability. Boeing assessed that bulk of the air travelling public, especially frequent fliers, would prefer direct access to their respective destinations against getting into the hassles of having to change flights. It is worth noting that both aerospace giants experienced delays with their respective new designs.