Aircraft
After Its First Flight, Boeing 787 Faces Its Sternest Tests
With the first flight of its mold-breaking 787 Dreamliner final

With the
first flight of its mold-breaking 787 Dreamliner finally accomplished, Boeing now will attempt the Herculean task of finishing flight testing and obtaining certification by the end of next year. Only the weather marred the first flight of the first 787 (ZA001) on December 15, forcing test pilots Mike Carriker and Randy Neville to cut the planned four-hour mission to three hours.

The pilots departed from Paine Field in Everett, Wash., at 10:27 a.m. into cloudy skies that turned rainy shortly after the departure, then landed in rainy skies with good visibility at 1:33 p.m. at Boeing Field in Seattle.

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