The first flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner took place yesterday. The event was webcasted for the whole world to watch via a feed Boeing provided on their website. They had set up seven cameras around Paine Field in Everett, Washington to record the maiden flight, which is still available to watch on-demand.
Anticipation was high throughout the day with chatter starting early on the social networking platform Twitter. @Flightglobal remarked “No words can describe how excited we are about the #787FF” and Benet Wilson from Aviation Week shared the excitement remotely tweeting “This is KILLING me! Why am I not in Seattle for the #787FF ?? Argh!”
The only concern on people’s minds seemed to be the weather. A legitimate worry since Boeing’s policy on first flight weather conditions call for good visibility, no standing water on the runway and gentle or no winds and it had been a cold night.
Happily the weather held and the maiden flight took off around 10:30 PST, just as #787 became a trending topic beside #COP15 on Twitter.
There was a great deal of excitement around this flight and for good reason. The 787 is designed to be more environmentally progressive throughout the product life cycle. It is the first commercial aircraft to be made mostly from composites rather than conventional aluminum and steel and has next-generation engine technology and an aerodynamic design, meaning it is 20% more efficient per passenger than the aircraft they replace. More details about this new aircrafts credentials appear on the site.
It was great to share all the excitement with our Twitter followers. A special thanks to @ShawGreenEdge @CarbonContest (@AvWeekBenet @Benetwilson) @gonufer @BluePortMRO @azfood @AircrewBuzz @mumphalee @AviationExperts @VolvoGroupNA @AvionicsSpec @reuven_p and @williamairways
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