It’s been two days since the 787 took flight for the first time and it certainly was one of the most anticipated first flights of an aircraft.  Anyone who has followed the development of the 787 program certainly knew that it would indeed be a special aircraft and no one would doubt that there is a lot of promise in it. 

Although I’ve seen countless photographs of the first aircraft, ZA001, I was pretty surprised by a couple of things.  First, the wing flex.  All the promotional photos for the airplane showed it but , intellectually, I didn’t believe it would look like that.  But it was, if anything, even more dramatic than renderings in my opinion.

Second, if you saw video of the take-off, how about how they time the chase planes?  Those T-33 jets were just the right whipped cream for that take-off. 

At some angles, the 787 reminds me more of the 757 than the 767.  At others, it reminds me of the 777.  Those huge Rolls-Royce engines throw me off because they are much larger in proportion to the airplane than any other common aircraft.  They look larger than the 777 engines (but aren’t.)

Here are two the better videos I could find of the take-off:

I genuinely look forward to seeing that airplane land at DFW airport one day.

One note:  My wife and a couple of friends commented on the fact that all photos of the plane show its landing gear extended.  Typically the landing gear is left deployed on a first flight simply because it provides a little extra margin of safety.  Most likely, the gear was left deployed the entire first flight or, at best, cycled once and then left deployed again.   As the testing continues, the gear will be retracted and the normal “envelope” of handling for the aircraft will be found through more and  more tests.

Filed under: Aircraft Development by ajax