By Andy Owens
aowens@scbiznews.com
Published Dec. 16, 2009

The head of Boeing’s 787 program said Tuesday’s successful first flight of the Dreamliner was a statement on the competitiveness of America.

Sitting with the two pilots who flew the 184-foot-long composite jet for three hours, Scott Fancher, Boeing’s vice president and general manager for the 787 program, said the jet had accomplished many goals on Tuesday, including bringing back the ‘magic of flight’ for pilots and passengers.

“This is a day to be proud of, a day that has changed the history of aviation,” Fancher said yards away from where the 787 came to a stop at a landing strip in Everett, Wash. “We are confident we have created an airplane that will truly change the game.”

Fancher said the first flight also marked a great day for the Boeing company and its partners around the globe that helped design and build the 787 Dreamliner. Those partners include Boeing Charleston, the former Vought Aircraft Industries plant near the Charleston International Airport, and Global Aeronautica, in which Boeing owns a 50% stake.

The flight also puts a stake in the ground for a new Dreamliner final assembly plant in North Charleston that Boeing announced in October. Work crews have already cleared large swaths of land extending south to the Lowcountry Graduate Center and east to Aviation Boulevard.

Workers at the two existing plants in North Charleston were responsible for building and integrating parts into 60% of the Dreamliner’s fuselage that flew on Tuesday.

Although the actual flight took place on the other side of the country where the first Dreamliner was assembled, employees of Boeing Charleston gathered to watch footage of the test flight on a large screen at the company’s production facility on International Boulevard in North Charleston and at the adjacent Global Aeronautica plant.

The next generation aircraft is made from composite materials and is built in sections from Boeing’s partners around the world. Many of those sections are flown into North Charleston on a modified 747 called the Dreamlifter, which is often seen flying over Interstate 26 or Dorchester Road near the airport on its way to Japan or Italy, where major portions of the 787 are built, or to Everett.

After takeoff from Everett, the airplane followed a route over the east end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The pilots took the plane to an altitude of 15,000 feet and achieved an air speed of 180 knots, or about 207 miles per hour, which Boeing said is customary on a first flight.

The pilots, who had planned to fly for five hours but had the trip cut short by weather and cloud cover, couldn’t say enough positive things about flying the 787.

“Would I like to get another 20,000 pounds of gas in good weather and go again? You bet I would,” said co-pilot Randy Neville.

Boeing had been waiting for more than two years for this day, with earlier production delays and a machinists union strike in 2008 that brought work to a halt in Everett.

“We know the plane wanted to fly. It was tired of being tested on the ground,” said pilot Mike Carriker, mirroring his own desire to take the aircraft into the air after completing multiple ground tests, including a high-speed taxi on Saturday that lifted the nose of the jet off the ground.

The pilots said the next scheduled flight will take place in about a week, which will give Boeing time to install more instrumentation and add to their data-gathering ability. Boeing said that 840 Dreamliners have been ordered by 55 customers around the world, making the aircraft the fastest-selling new commercial jetliner in history.

Fancher said as the market frees up, and they gather more data from continuing flights to back up what Boeing engineers and pilots said the 787 could do, the phone will be ringing with even more orders. That continuing flow of orders also cements the need for the second final assembly line in North Charleston.

“This is truly the first all new jet airplane for the 21st century,” Fancher said. “I assure you the 787 will be the game changer it was meant to be. I know we had a great day in the air.”

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