Boeing 787 to fly today...50 minutes from now

[Boeing Skunk Works]

Flight plan is filed. Departure planned for 1210 Central, 1710 GMT.

[Sean]

1810GMT

[Trevor Hale]

Truly a milestone!  Best of luck to the pilots and crew.

[ETomlin]

Brought tears to my eyes-

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Live First Take-Off / Flight [Original]

Very exciting!

[Mterm]

Just a question....I noticed that when the plane took off they did not retract the landinging gear on the climb out. Is there a reason for that maybe part of the testing...

[dnoize]

standard procedure

[ETomlin]

Typically on first flights cycling the landing gear is not part of the routine. However, I am thinking that they may have done so later in the day possibly after watching either one of the news casts or a press release that mentioned testing the landing gear. In fact I just found this:

"Most of Tuesday's inaugural flight was conducted with the plane's wing flaps extended and at relatively low speeds. At one point, the crew retracted the landing gear and "we both breathed a sigh of relief when it went back down correctly," said Capt. Carriker."-

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704398304574598730515790354.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[Mterm]

ETomlin and dnoize,

Thanks for the info