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First 787 Delivery In Tokyo This Week
Boeing’s 787, the most talked about airliner of this young century, is no longer a dream in an engineer’s computer. The long-sought advances of plastics being aerodynamically molded into a new kind of airframe, less-thirsty engines being kinder to the environment and passengers being flown more comfortably, thanks to electric motors, has become concrete.
Launch customer All Nippon Airways is to begin turning the new widebody jet into a commercial reality on Sept. 28, when the first of the 55 aircraft on order lands in Tokyo. By next April, it expects to receive the next 13.
As soon as ANA launched the new jet, Boeing was promoting it. In its name-the-plane contest, “Dreamliner” won, as did Boeing’s marketing effort. Before the 2008 recession took its toll on airlines, orders for 910 aircraft had been written. Few aircraft programs achieve that many sales after 20 years in the market. Even now, the retrenched figure of 821 orders is an industry record.
