Boeing unveiled its 787 Dreamliner yesterday in a celebration attended by employees, airline customers, supplier partners and government and community officials.

The 787 Dreamliner roll-out was broadcast live in nine different languages via satellite to more than 45 countries and webcast on two Boeing Web sites. Former television news anchorman Tom Brokaw served as the master of ceremonies for the event.

Approximately 15,000 people attended the premiere at the factory at Everett, Wash. where Boeing performs final assembly of all its widebody airliner models. The building that contains the final assembly lines for the 747, 767, 777 and 787 is volumetrically the largest building in the world.

More than 30,000 people from Japan, Italy and locations in the United States participated in the event in Everett via two-way satellite. As many as 90 other locations around the globe involving 787 customers, partners and many Boeing employees also downloaded the event live or pre-recorded it for watching at their own viewing events.

In all, the 787 premiere potentially reached 100 million or more viewers, making it one of the largest corporate TV and Internet broadcasts in history.

"This has been a wonderful and exciting day to celebrate this breakthrough airplane with our customers, employees, supplier partners and our communities," said Scott Carson, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO. "We are gratified that the 787 has been so strongly validated in the marketplace by our customers. Their response is proof that the Dreamliner will bring real value to our airline customers, passengers and the global air transportation system."

Boeing claims the 787 Dreamliner, the world's first mostly composite airliner, will use 20 percent less fuel per passenger than similarly sized airplanes, produce fewer carbon emissions, and will have quieter takeoffs and landings.

"Our journey began some six years ago when we knew we were on the cusp of delivering valuable technologies that would make an economic difference to our airline customers," said Mike Bair, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president/general manager of the 787 program. "In our business, that happens every 15 or so years, so we have to get it right."

Following the roll-out, the first 787 Dreamliner will be completed in the Everett factory. Completion will include the installation of final systems elements, interiors and flight test equipment.

The 787's first flight is expected in late August or September. Six airplanes will be included in the flight test program, which will conclude in May 2008 with the certification of the airplane followed shortly by the first delivery of a 787 to ANA.

To date, 47 customers worldwide have ordered 677 airplanes worth more than $110 billion at current list prices, which Boeing says makes the Dreamliner the most successful commercial airplane launch in history. The first 787 is scheduled to enter passenger service in May 2008.

Some 70 percent of the Boeing 787 is made outside the United States. On the 787, for the first time, Boeing has let companies from another country help design and build the wings for one of its airliners. The 787's wings, widely regarded as the airplane's most sensitive technology as they are for any modern widebody airliner, are made in Japan.

Many people do not realize that although Boeing competitor Airbus is seen as being a European company, U.S. companies make up to 50 per cent of most Airbus airliner models by material content and dollar value. Additionally, Airbus carries out a significant amount of design work for its new jets -- including the A380 superjumbo and the forthcoming A350 XWB, Airbus' competitive response to the 787 -- at design centers it has established in the United States.

Today, it is clear, the big airliner manufacturing companies are truly multinational enterprises.

Large 787 assemblies - including wings -- are flown on Boeing 747 Large Cargo Freighters from locations in Japan, Italy and parts of the United States to Everett for final assembly. The 747-400LCF -- which Boeing has dubbed the Dreamlifter -- is a specially modified Boeing 747-400 that Boeing designed specifically as a fundamental transport link in the geographically dispersed 787 manufacturing process.

Eventually Boeing expects to have a fleet of six Dreamlifters, operated on its behalf by Oregon-based Evergreen International Airlines, in service supporting 787 production.

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