SEATTLE – Boeing Co completed the first test flight of its new lightweight carbon and titanium Dreamliner, but the flight was cut short because of bad weather.
The flight was more than two years behind schedule because of manufacturing and design problems.
The 787 Dreamliner’s highly anticipated takeoff and landing were witnessed by several thousand Boeing employees, industry VIPs, airplane enthusiasts and reporters. But excitement and relief spread throughout the aerospace industry.
The plane, which Boeing has said will 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 at its factory.
Airlines like the concept of the mid-sized plane that can carry about 250 people very long distances. They have ordered 840 of the aircraft, worth about $140 billion, since work began on the plane in 2004.
But production has been delayed five times in the past three years, and the first flight has been postponed six times.
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 have said 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 will be and how they will perform will not be known until flight tests have been completed.
“It’s a major step-off point to the ultimate goal which is certification and customer delivery. It’s an important milestone but it’s not the end goal,” Clay Jones, chief executive of Rockwell Collins said at the Reuters Aerospace & Defense Summit in Washington.
Rockwell makes display systems, communications and surveillance systems and pilot controls systems for the 787.
Boeing’s shares closed down 0.68 percent, or 38 cents, at $55.67 on the New York Stock Exchange. The company’s shares have risen about 90 percent since March, outstripping the rebound in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.
ROUND-THE-CLOCK TESTS
The Dreamliner, painted with Boeing’s blue and white logo, took off from Paine Field adjacent to its factory in Everett, Washington, 30 miles north of Seattle for a foray around the Puget Sound and inland Washington state. The aircraft landed at Boeing Field in Seattle.
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