Aircraft

Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner makes first test flight

Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner makes first test flight
Boeing's 787-10 Dreamliner has taken to the skies for its maiden flight
Boeing's 787-10 Dreamliner has taken to the skies for its maiden flight
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Boeing's 787-10 Dreamliner has taken to the skies for its maiden flight
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Boeing's 787-10 Dreamliner has taken to the skies for its maiden flight
The Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner boasts better fuel economy than its predecessors and other planes its size
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The Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner boasts better fuel economy than its predecessors and other planes its size
The 787-10 Dreamliner will undergo more comprehensive testing over the coming months, before Boeing begins delivering it to customers in the first half of 2018
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The 787-10 Dreamliner will undergo more comprehensive testing over the coming months, before Boeing begins delivering it to customers in the first half of 2018
Taking off from the Boeing South Carolina facility , the 787-10 Dreamliner's first flight last 4 hours and 58 minutes
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Taking off from the Boeing South Carolina facility , the 787-10 Dreamliner's first flight last 4 hours and 58 minutes
Boeing's 787-10 Dreamliner is 18 ft (5.5 m) longer than the 787-9, allowing it to carry 330 passengers and 15 percent more cargo
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Boeing's 787-10 Dreamliner is 18 ft (5.5 m) longer than the 787-9, allowing it to carry 330 passengers and 15 percent more cargo 
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Boeing's lanky new 787-10 Dreamliner has left the nest for the first time. The maiden flight of the longer, more spacious plane lasted just shy of five hours, and according to Boeing it went off without a hitch.

Taking off from the company's South Carolina facility, the 787-10 spent four hours and 58 minutes in the air under the command of test pilots Tim Berg and Mike Bryan, who put the plane through the paces to check its flight controls, systems and handling.

"From takeoff to landing, the airplane handled beautifully and just as expected," said Berg.

Taking off from the Boeing South Carolina facility , the 787-10 Dreamliner's first flight last 4 hours and 58 minutes
Taking off from the Boeing South Carolina facility , the 787-10 Dreamliner's first flight last 4 hours and 58 minutes

First announced at the 2013 Paris Air Show, the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner adds an extra 18 ft (5.5 m) of length to its stablemate, the 787-9, giving it room for 330 passengers and 15 percent more cargo. In the same breath, Boeing boasts that the 787-10 has 25 percent better fuel economy per seat than its predecessors, and it's claimed to be 10 percent more efficient than other planes of its size.

Final assembly of the craft began in December, before it was officially unveiled during a Presidential visit back in February. Boeing will now perform more comprehensive flight tests of the new Dreamliner to prepare it for its first deliveries to carriers in the first half of next year. Nine companies, including United Airlines, British Airways and Singapore Airlines have placed 149 orders for the new plane.

The 787-10 Dreamliner can be seen on its first flight in the video below.

Source: Boeing

Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner Completes First Flight

View gallery - 5 images
3 comments
3 comments
Nicolas Zart
I'm sad to see bigger versions of the 787 since what endears to it me is its relative small size. Wasn't that the idea of the 787 in the first place? Fly from smaller airports, avoids the hub inferno and not feel like cattle herding in a monster jet? Maybe I got that wrong.
GeoffreyDavidHenderson
No winglets? I thought they were very effective, adding as much as 5% fuel saving.
christopher
@Geoffrey; winglets help prevent high-pressure lowside air running around the tip to the low-pressure high-side air; they do not *have* to be at a different angle to the rest of the wing - they just need a different angle-of-attack if they're horizontal - which it looks like those wings do have.