A look at the history of Boeing’s Dreamliner jet
Jan 25, 2013, 8:01 AM
(AP) – January 2003: Boeing sets up a team of executives to design the new plane.
June 15, 2003: The company says the jet will be called the Dreamliner after 500,000 people from more than 160 countries voted on the name.
Dec. 16. 2003: Boeing announces that its board of directors has given final approval for the plane. The company starts taking orders from airlines.
July 26, 2004: Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) becomes the launch customer for the 787 with an order for 50 jets.
December 2004 : Boeing ends 2004 with 56 orders for the plane. Its goal had been 200.
December 2005: Boeing ends 2005 with a total of 288 orders for the jet.
June 2006: Assembly begins at the company’s Everett, Wash., plant.
June 2007: Engineers assembling the first plane find a 0.3-inch gap between the nose-and-cockpit section and the fuselage section behind it.
July 8, 2007: The world gets its first glimpse of the Dreamliner as it is paraded in front of a crowd of 15,000. The plane turns out to be just a hollow shell, rushed together for the event.
September 2007: Boeing announces the first of many production delays, starting with a shortage of bolts and problems with flight-control software.
2008: Boeing announces four more delays during the year. Among the reasons: a 57-day machinists strike, problems with improperly installed fasteners and trouble with the company’s global supply chain.
June 2009: Boeing reports 59 cancellations for the 787.
June 23, 2009: Boeing announces another delay.
Dec. 15, 2009: The first 787 test flight leaves from Paine Field, adjacent to Boeing’s factory in Everett, Wash.
Nov. 9, 2010: During a test flight, a 787 loses electrical power after fire breaks out in an electrical control panel. Test flights are delayed six weeks.
Aug. 26, 2011: The Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency certify the plane to carry passengers.
Sept. 25, 2011: Japan’s All Nippon Airways takes delivery of the first 787.
Oct. 26, 2011: The first paying passengers step aboard the plane, three and a half years behind schedule. The four-hour charter flight on ANA goes from Tokyo to Hong Kong.
July 28, 2012: Debris falls from a 787 engine during a test, sparking a grass fire at South Carolina’s Charleston International Airport.
Jan. 7, 2013: The battery pack on a Japan Airlines 787 catches fire after the flight landed at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Passengers had already left the plane, but it took firefighters 40 minutes to put out the blaze.
Jan. 11, 2013: The FAA launches a review of the entire plane, even as top transportation regulators insist it is safe.
Jan. 16, 2013: An ANA 787 makes an emergency landing after pilots are alerted to battery problems and detected a burning smell. ANA and Japan Airlines ground their entire Dreamliner fleets.
Jan. 16, 2013: The FAA grounds all 787s flown by U.S. airlines. Japanese, Indian and European aviation authorities follow with their own grounding orders.
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