First 787 Dreamliner departs factory floor for flight testing

The first 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's bestselling, futuristic commercial passenger aircraft has finally exited its Seattle factory floor for the company's flight testing facility. The aircraft will fly sometime this quarter, said a senior Boeing official.

Randy Tinseth, Boeing Commercial Airplanes' vice-president of marketing, said Friday, "The airplane went from the factory to flight-test facility on Sunday. We are going to fly the plane this quarter."

According to Tinseth, despite the global recession and a lengthy strike last year Boeing's commercial plane division was hopeful of a good year in 2009. He said the company was on schedule to produce 480 to 485 commercial jets this year.

Though the company will cut back on its 777 production rate in 2010, and had also cancelled plans to increase production of the 767 and 747, Tinseth said an order backlog of 3,600 planes would ensure seven and a half years of production.

He also pointed out that though production delays had resulted in a few cancellations for the 787, the company still had 861 orders for the futuristic aircraft.