Boeing all smiles after 787 flights
Apr 29, 2013, 5:57 AM | Updated: 7:35 am
A Japan's All Nippon Airways Boeing 787 aricraft flies over Tokyo bay during a test flight in Tokyo Sunday, April 28, 2013. ANA has successfully conducted its first test flight of the Boeing 787 aircraft since battery problems grounded the planes earlier this year.(AP Photo/Kyodo News)
(AP Photo/Kyodo News)
The Boeing Dreamliner returned to passenger service over the weekend, and airlines in Japan began their first test flights since the grounding of the entire fleet.
Boeing Vice President of Marketing Randy Tinseth called it a party-like atmosphere as a 787 flew him and the rest of the passengers from Ethiopia to Kenya over the weekend. It was the first passenger flight since the international grounding of the Dreamliner was lifted.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Ray Connor was on the first test flight of an All Nippon Airways 787 on Sunday as the airline prepares to return the Dreamliner to commercial service.
Workers continue to retrofit the planes with the newly-designed battery system. It takes about five days to switch out the systems.
Most of the eight Dreamliner customers plan to have them flying passengers within a month.
