Boeing

Boeing 787 Has Successful First Flight After Two Year Delay

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner successfully made its first flight today. Media coverage highlights the smooth flight whose only issue was the weather. While very positive about the flight, coverage also focused on previous delays to the program and how much Boeing has riding on its success.

NBC Nightly News (12/15, story 7, 2:35, Williams) reported, "The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, as it's called, got off the ground today for its first test flight." NBC (Lester Holt) added, "With more than 800 orders for an unproven plane, the pressure for first flight was on. ... Airlines have patiently waited for this 250-passenger aircraft because from the light materials it's built with, to the new generation engines, including versions built by NBC's parent company GE, the 787 is expected to dramatically improve their bottom lines."

The AP (12/16, Tibbits) reports the plane conducted "a variety of basic system checks" before weather forced the flight to end an hour earlier than planned. According to the AP, it "looked like a normal takeoff" despite this being the first flight of the plane that is a "radical departure" in design. USA Today (12/16, Reed) cites analyst Jon Ostrower, who "says the six delays that pushed back the Dreamliner's first flight more than two years did produce a benefit: more opportunity to work out bugs in advanced systems on the plane that flew Tuesday."

The Wall Street Journal (12/16, B1, Sanders, Michaels) notes on the front page of its Marketplace section that Boeing now faces the challenge of getting the Dreamliner into production quickly because of all of the delays. Boeing, according to the article, has much of its future riding on the success of the program, which has caused the company to lose a lot of money in the past. According to the New York Times (12/16, A27, Yardly), the 787 is "burdened with restoring Boeing's pre-eminence in global commercial aviation." However, Randall Neville, one of the test pilots, said there were "no surprises" on the flight. He said, "The thing that caught me most today was that this airplane flew like we expected it to." The Los Angeles Times (12/16, Hennington) calls the flight a "major milestone in commercial aviation."