North Olympic Peninsula residents became some of the first to witness Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner in flight Tuesday.
The pioneering airplane spent much of its first test flight circling over and near the Strait of Juan de Fuca before landing in Seattle. You can see its flight path here: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BOE1
The aircraft — painted in the company’s blue, white and turquoise colors and followed by two chase planes — was seen flying over Port Townsend at 10:27 a.m., shortly after leaving Paine Field in Everett to the excitement of thousands who came to watch the first take-off.
It reached Port Angeles on its first circle at about 10:45 a.m.
A three-hour tour
It spent most of its three-hour maiden flight flying back and forth along the Peninsula’s north coast and heading as far west as Crescent Bay.
It also flew as far north as Anacortes before flying back to the Peninsula once again before landing at Boeing Field at 1:35 p.m.
Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdier said the airplane, which is made with more lightweight composite materials than any other commercial aircraft, spent most of its time flying over or near the Peninsula because it simply provided the best weather to run its flight tests.
The “blue hole” over Sequim, a patch of sunshine in an otherwise cloudy sky, is well-known to pilots.
The flight was cut about 21âÑ2 hours short because of worsening rainy weather conditions at Boeing Field.
That decision kept the plane from flying over Eastern Washington as previously planned.
For Sequim resident Louise Demetriff, who had seen the plane on television news that morning, the sight of it flying overhead at about 1 p.m. was a pleasant surprise.
“I was coming back from shopping . . . and I happened to look up and there goes the big plane with the two little planes,” said Demetriff who was driving down Seventh Avenue at the time.
‘That’s it!’
“I said: ‘That’s it!’
“You never expect them to come over this way.”
For Jeff Well, owner of Rite Bros. Aviation in Port Angeles, the flight over the Peninsula was a missed opportunity.
“I did not [see it] and I’m so upset that I didn’t get to see it when it went by,” Well said.
“I was off rummaging in a hanger working on something.”
Boeing said that the plane was taken to an altitude of 15,000 feet and an air speed of 180 knots, or about 207 miles per hour.
The 787 is a radical departure in aircraft design. Where other passenger jets are made mostly from aluminum and titanium, nearly all of the 787’s fuselage and wings are made of lightweight composite materials such as carbon fiber, accounting for about 50 percent of the aircraft by weight.
Those materials have long been used on individual parts such as rudders, and on military planes, but the 787 is the most ambitious use of the technology aboard a passenger plane.
Boeing says the aircraft will be quieter, produce lower emissions and use 20 percent less fuel than comparable planes, while giving passengers a more comfortable cabin with better air quality and larger windows.
Boeing has orders for 840 of the jets, originally expected to be flight-tested in 2007. Production glitches pushed the first test flight back about two years.
The plane seen Tuesday is one of six 787s that Boeing will use in its nine-month long flight-test program.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
