[Freeport]

More images in the article.

[golfisnr1]

Looks like they pulling it off.
We have some ealy RSG’s in the US.

[BenLurkin]

Boeing certainly seems to know how to build passenger aircraft.

[Tallguy]

I bet this particular plane is going to wear the colors of several major airlines before it gets its final paint job prior to delivery. You can bet Boeing will want to show-off for every delegation that comes for a looksee.

[N. Theknow]

Are Dealer Prep and Destination charges included in the price?

[Moonman62]

Oh baby!

[DungeonMaster]

I’m hearing a ball bearing shaking in a spray can right now.

[Law is not justice but process]

Did they meet their ambitious weight-saving goals? Last I heard they were struggling to keep the final weight within design parameters.

It is a beautiful final product, though. Some major fuselage components were made at the Charleston Airport just a few miles from my old home-place. I can’t wait to fly on one.

[skeptoid]

The P. I. has an article with the Conklin photos and captions :

The first 787 Dreamliner inside the assembly bay in Everett after the doors were opened around midnight Tuesday, before being rolled outside and moved to a paint facility. Aviation enthusiast and pilot Charles Conklin of Kirkland had picked up hints about the unofficial rollout on an aviation Web site and had waited outside the perimeter of the Boeing property since shortly after 10 p.m. Monday. This was his payoff. (Photo by Charles Conklin) (June 26, 2007)

and

Viewed from the rear, the first 787 Dreamliner is rolled to the painting facility. This photo provides a glimpse of the 787's curved wing tips. "You'll see that a lot, very exaggerated, in the artist's renderings, but there's your first view of how they actually do that," said photographer Charles Conklin.
(Photo by Charles Conklin) (June 26, 2007)

[azhenfud]

Pinging you!

[skeptoid]

I just noticed the (relatively) large inlets in the wing fairing/cuff ... just below the leadin edge root. I can’t recall anything like them on current passenger airplanes.

[antiRepublicrat]

Awesome. I just read about the wing load test, you remember, the one that the A380 failed. They went to 150%, and they did it so easily they’re wondering whether to push it until the wing breaks. They think they might actually get the tips to meet above the fuselage!

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/06/the-new-boeing-.html

[AFreeBird]

Saw an article over on Wired that had this little tidbit:

Boeing has completed static testing of a three-quarter wingbox, but engineers are still considering whether to limit testing of the full wing to a 150% load limit held for 3 sec. of to continue bending it to see when it breaks. "There's a raging debate within the engineering team to see if we should break it or not," says [787 General Manager Mike] Bair.

Breaking it isn't necessary for certification, but Bair says the wing is so strong and flexible that there's been talk that maybe it could be bend far enough for the wingtips to touch above the fuselage—or come quite close.

Now that I'd like to see.

[fish hawk]

No matter how big they make them, they will still jamb the seats so tight you have to hold your breath to keep from banging your knees and elbows. Wanna bet?

[AFreeBird]

Another interesting article.

DATE:21/06/07

SOURCE:Flight International

Boeing plans major 787 performance boost through production technologies

By Max Kingsley-Jones

Improved versions of the Boeing 787 family offering significant efficiency and range increases could be available within six years thanks to refinements in the production technique used to build the twinjet's carbonfibre structure.

Mike Bair, vice-president and general manager of the twinjet programme, says that by the time the planned 787-10 double-stretch enters service in around 2013, Boeing expects to have "better optimised" the composite structure, which will mitigate the range loss resulting from the increased length, and these improvements will be drilled back into the existing -8 and -9 models.

The 787-10 will have around 50 more seats than the -9, but will retain its wing size and operating weights meaning that "the range will fall out, but we will have the technology to get the weight out of the aircraft to make it more efficient to get some of that range back", says Bair. He adds that after 70 years of building aircraft fuselages from aluminium, "we're right at the beginning of learning how to do that with composites".

In the "three and half years" since the decision was taken to use carbonfibre for the bulk of the 787, Boeing has already identified ways to better optimise the structure during construction, says Bair: "We have a laundry list of things we can do. We're talking about a generation and a half improvement."

Bair says that the structural improvements will result in a 5% efficiency gain and Boeing is looking at how to introduce the changes into the 787-8/9. "We could do a block change," he says, where a new build standard is introduced from a certain line number. "We're going to move the performance goal posts [that Airbus is aiming at with the A350 specification]," says Bair.

The 300-seat 787-10 is currently being offered but will not be launched until a customer is secured and then board approval received. Bair says that the 2013 in-service target is "a year later than planned as we've sold all the -10 flight test aircraft production slots" as -8s and -9s. Production of the twinjet is effectively sold out until "the mid-point of the next decade", he adds.

Meanwhile final assembly of the first 787-8 is proceeding on schedule towards the 8 July roll-out ceremony, although Bair concedes that there are "pockets that are behind". He says that at roll-out the aircraft will be structurally complete, but will then need to undergo the installation of systems and ground testing. "The next milestone after roll-out will be the power-on," he says.

The first flight of the -8 is due in the late August/September timeframe and Bair says that if this target is missed there are certain parts of the flight-test programme that can be deferred to ensure Boeing still meets its May 2008 delivery date to launch operator All Nippon Airways.

[EverOnward]

Beautiful.

[norton]

I'm assumig that at least some of those in this thread have seen the following quoted from AP(?):

From a French Senate inquiry:
"Airbus's decision to focus on the A380 is the reason its position as the world's dominant planemaker has slipped behind U.S. rival Boeing Co.
...technical problems have led to a two-year delay...expected to wipe out ($6.2 billion from profits) over the next four years.
The plane is now due for its first delivery later this year.
The senators said the company should concentrate on more lucrative markets such as the mid-range A350, which Airbus was forced into a costly redesign last year, or its best-seller A320, which will be due for an upgrade in coming years."

(Tsk...)

[RayChuang88]

By the way, these pictures were shot when a poster on Airliners.net's Civil Aviation learned about the night rollout and managed to get those amazing pictures. Doesn't that plane look cool?