More About First Flight

I'm told the temperature on the taxiway was 36 degrees; it was probably a degree or two warmer in the primary viewing area, since there were so many of us packed together. We had walked over a mile and waited an hour in the cold before 787 Airplane #1 even turned on its engines - there was a cheeer when we heard them spinning up. I watched closely through my monocular for the closing of Door 1 Right; a person nearby had a scanner tuned to Boeing's ground control frequency. A number of people had brough cameras, some were texting... and quite a few were watching our stock price, curious if 1st Flight would have a noticable effect.

First one, and eventually three news helicopters posted themselves over the field, one coming within a hundred feet of the crowd just barely off the ground to get close up shots.

I was standing in the NW corner of the primary viewing area, right on the taxiway. I was just one row back from the North edge, and about three from the West edge. We discussed whether the plane would take off to the north or south, and how well the flight would go. The landing of some regular business jet traffic was viewed with interest.

At a few minutes after 10:00AM, Door 1 Right closed and the stairway pulled away. The plane began to taxi from its stall onto the runway. It passed us, still at taxi speed, and turned around out of my sight to the south.

A pair of chase planes made a pass over the field south to north, then came around for another pass. As they did, perfectly timed, the 787 brought its engines to takeoff power and rolled down the runway. It wasn't quite in my sight when it rotated off the runway, but it can't have been more than 100 feet up when it came into sight. One of the chase planes passed right over my head. Time by my watch: 10:26AM.

The flight of three climbed slowly away to the north, fading out of sight into the distance and the clouds. I watched until I couldn't pick them up any more in my monocular.

Hours later, back at my desk, I watched on video as the plane touched down in Seattle.

This will be something that I'll never forget.