Boeing 787 Dreamliner ready to fly at last

Listen to Dave Ross Commentary – Boeing 787 Dreamliner ready to fly at last

It was outside a giant hangar in Everett Washington on July 8, 2007 — 7/8/07 — that Boeing unveiled it’s new 787 Dreamliner, with the first carbon fiber fuselage, and fuel efficient engines.

It certainly did push the limits — mainly of Boeing’s manufacturing process. Because what few people understood — except for those actually working on the plane — was that the model they rolled out that day was a shell. There was nothing inside.

And what followed were a series of delays which called into question the idea that a plane could be designed on a computer using parts from all over the world.

Shipments were late, rivets didn’t fit, parts were substandard. Deadlines kept slipping.

But now finally, the 787 is ready. Chief test pilot Mike Carriker has spent the last 619 days making it do things an airplane should never have to do:

“We spend 99 percent of our time breaking the airplane and making sure that the airplane will operate safely after it is broken,” says Carriker.

And it DIDN’T break. And on Friday, the FAA finally certified the 787 as ready to for commercial service.

“It just builds excitement inside the airline because they go, ‘Look we have a brand new airplane. We have a great product. We have a good future in front of us.”

The first 787 Dreamliner goes to all Nippon Airways in about a month.

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