RealityEquation

∗ Boeing 787 roll out today, 7-series tribute

I love it when big corporations do nice little things to show they love what they do. You know, like Steve’s ‘One More Thing‘ for Apple? Add Boeing to the party.

Boeing yesterday (or today, if you’re in that part of the world) lined up all its 7-series aircraft — the 707 through 777 — and flew them from Paine Field (Everett) to the Boeing Field in Seattle in a tribute to the 787, the new airplane that will join the 7Series family today. The plan was to land the 707 at 7:07pm, the 727 at 7:27pm, the 737 at 7:37pm and so on. (I know what you’re thinking… the answer is 8:07pm and 8:17pm).

So basically, on 07/07/07 (American date format), every 7-series made their welcome flights for the 787 Dreamliner, which will roll out on 07/08/07, which is today. Scott Carson, President CEO of Beoing Corportation, was the one who dreamed up (okay, fine, this is pushing the pun) the idea to play with the dates and times.

A brief overview of the aircraft used in yesterday’s operations: the 707 was provided by Omega Air, and is one of only three commercial refueling aircraft in all the world; the 717 by AirTran, original launch customer for the aircraft; the 727 by FedEx; the recently-delivered 738 by Alaska Airlines; 747-200 by Rolls Royce; the 757 by Continental Airlines; the 767 by Delta Airlines; and the 777-300 ER will be delivered to Air France this month.

The 787, Boeing’s twin-engine medium- to long-range widebody, will, of course, now join the series.

The Dreamliner project grew out of Sonic Cruiser, which was to replace the 767, and was originally only known as the 7E7 (that E could be “efficient”, “environmentally friendly” or “eight”, all of which work). The reason that the 787 has already secured over 600 orders is perhaps because this new aircraft is supposed to be 20% more fuel-efficient. To learn more about this amazing new aircraft, visit Boeing New Airplane website, or check out the Wikipedia article.

On June 26, a lot of us got to see a completed 787 for the first time thanks to the efforts of Charles Conklin, who posted photos in the Airliners.net forum of the bird leaving the assembly line. The first thing that caught my eye were the engines. The 747-200 that Rolls Royce provided for yesterday’s flyover had the 787’s Trent 1000 for the number 2 engine and it absolutely dwarfed the other three - the thing is HUGE! Airliners.net posters were also excited about the chevrons at the back of the engines, the new nose section and, although the original shark-fin tail didn’t make it, an altogether fresh design.

The Flightblogger website, which has been provided details on the 787 process, counts 6 hours and 21 minutes as of this writing to the rolling out of the 787. Time to get excited!