Boeing is making the first test flight of its 787 Dreamliner today, almost two-and-a-half years after the new, fuel-efficient plane was supposed to fly.
The lightweight carbon and titanium plane, promising to save airlines million of dollars in fuel and maintenance costs, has been hampered by a shortage of bolts, faulty design and a two-month strike, and it still has a long way to go before it proves to be a success.
Airlines like the concept of the mid-sized plane, which promises to excel at carrying 250 or so people very long distances. They have ordered 840 of the aircraft, worth about $140 billion, since work on the plane began in 2004.
In the meantime, rival Airbus, a unit of Europe's EADS, has been attracting buyers for its competing A350 plane, which will also be made primarily from carbon-composite materials.
Exactly how much profit Boeing can expect to make from the plane is uncertain. Analysts say the company has invested more than $10 billion in the project, and will have to give some sort of compensation to customers for late planes. How late the planes are, and how they will perform, will not be known until flight tests are complete.
Today's test will start at least nine months of airborne tests on a fleet of six 787s running around the clock, which Boeing executives say will be like running a small airline.
But its test pilots will push the plane well beyond limits expected in ordinary commercial flights, practicing mid-air stalls, dives and steep banks, as well as seeking out extremes of heat and cold.
Boeing says the first 787 should be certified and delivered to Japan's All Nippon Airways in the fourth quarter of next year - more than two years after the original target of May 2008.
Reuters