More than 100 million people tuned in on Sunday for the launch of Boeing's most successful aircraft yet – the 787 Dreamliner.
Promising to ease airport woes with more seats and a quieter take-off, the Dreamliner was always going to get a lot of attention, but Sunday's affair was a debut fit for a Queen – and it is no surprise, the Dreamliner has already amassed $110bn of orders for 677 planes.
Airline customers, supply partners and community officials all turned up to the Washington event, which was six years in the making, which Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president and general manager of the 787 programme Mike Bair says heralds a new age of commercial flight.
"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," Bair says.
The Dreamliner is scheduled to take to the sky for the first time this August or September for a series of test flights in the lead up to an expected certification date of May 2008.
By Penny Jones
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