The Boeing 787 Dreamliner demo flight from Casablanca reached Abu Dhabi on Wednesday to a water-gun salute.
The flight, which took off at 9 am from Morocco, touched down at Abu Dhabi airport at 7pm local time. The journey, which normally takes about seven and half hours took just under seven hours due to a combination ofthe aerodynamic shape of the plane and favourable tail winds, Jasper P Corleis, Boeing flight test director, said.
The Dreamliner, which left Seattle on May 23 arrived in Casablanca on June 3 after visiting Sydney, Auckland and Tashkent. This aircraft is the third of the six demo planes around the world.
The game-changing aircraft in the field of commercial aviation has several innovative features. The fuselage and wings are made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic composites which makes the plane much lighter that the planes in its class thereby reducing fuel consumption by about 20 per cent, said kevin Yoo, Boeing’s communications specialist.
The most striking features on the Dreamliner are the open architecture with spacious entrance way, sky blue LED lighting. larger windows with no plastic shades and larger bins that can accommodate more baggage.
The windows can be dimmed to required level of darkness and visibility.
Etihad’s pilot John Downer, who took the controls mid-way, was very excited with the fligh deck which he finds more convenient, especially the head up device (HUD) which replicates the information on the panels in a visor-like display and also allows the pilot to see other planes and the terrain.
