Peninsula Daily News and FlightAware
Boeing Co.’s new 787 jetliner landed at Boeing Field at 1:30 p.m. after making its first test flight up and down the Strait of Juan de Fuca and around the Anacortes and San Juan Islands areas.
You can see its flight path here: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BOE1
The test flight was ended early because of weather issues, a Boeing spokesperson told The Associated Press. A storm system is heading up the Strait and inhibited the ability to see the Dreamliner along the North Olympic Peninsula this afternoon.
Shortly after its takeoff (and before clouds set in), the big blue Dreamliner was seen numerous times off Port Townsend, Port Angeles and the Dungeness areas as it flew westward, then turns around around Pysht and returned to the east.
The plane finally took to the skies this morning at Everett’s Paine Field, more than two years later than the company had planned.
Pilots Michael Carriker and Randall Neville lifted off in the big blue and white jet shortly after 10 a.m. to begin the extensive flight test program needed to obtain the plane’s Federal Aviation Administration certification.
Before landing at Seattle’s Boeing Field later, the two-member crew planned to perform a variety of basic tests and systems checks, said Boeing Commercial Airplanes spokesman Jim Proulx.
“They will essentially make sure that the airplane under normal circumstances flies the way it’s supposed to fly,” he said.
The huge blue and white aircraft paused for several minutes at the end of the runway, adding to the tension for the several thousand Boeing employees, customers and airline executives standing on the tarmac to watch.
About 25,000 people braved the cold and damp to watch the 787 take off.
Paine Field operations director Bruce Goetz says most of the crowd were Boeing employees or members of the general public. Also in the crowd were executives from the airlines that plan to buy the new plane.
