Being in Seattle, it was difficult to miss the run-up leading to the unveiling of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Over the last couple of weeks, this new flying bird was in news all over the print & electronic media. The premiere at Boeing's plant at Everett was witnessed by over 15,000 people including employees and delegates from all over the world. Another 25,000 employees, retirees and their guests watched this event on the giant screens at Qwest Field, the home of Seattle Seahawkers Football team. This event was broadcast live to over 100 countries in 6 different languages.
We were invited to watch this event at Qwest Field, starting at 3PM. Our plan to meet with other friends at the stadium was not successful because we reached different points of the stadium. There was no time to go about searching each other. We collected the complimentary 787 gliders (2 per person!).Once inside the stadium, we again got in touch with our cell phones and we were seated exactly across the stadium. At last, we were lucky to get one friend & his family who were looking for seats near us!
Unlike a typical event in India, this one was different with the absence of any film stars or a battery of politicians। Qwest field events started off with the band from one of the local schools followed by a brief address of 2-3 mins by the Governor of Washington State. Later on, video clippings of the existing airplane models and their comparison with 787 were shown. The host asked people who worked in each airplane model to stand up when the respective video was played. It was good to see number of elderly people stand up proudly when their respective airplane video came up. 787 video clippings provided lot of information about the airplane, its uniqueness and the partners involved in this process. By this time, the seating areas in the stadium were significantly occupied and the focus shifted to the unfolding events at the Everett plant near Seattle. A number of airline customers, flight attendants had descended on the Everett plant. Being the first to place the order, ANA (All Nippon Airways of Japan) received significant attention in the premiere. After the brief congratulatory notes from some key suppliers & customers, the CEO introduced the new airplane and the leader of the 787 program did the final honors in unveiling the airplane.
In all, it was a wonderful event and we took a lot of pictures. We got an opportunity to be with the Boeing community during this launch. Also, for the first time got a chance to see the football stadium in the USA. Compared to our cricket stadiums back home, this one made the visitor comfortable with abundant car parking space,good seating options, giant screens at either end of the playing area and off course the refreshment stalls and the convenient location of the rest rooms.
787 Dreamliner - My thoughts: With the order book of 677 airplanes as of 07/08, this one's definitely a market winner. Against popular belief, 787 is not the biggest aircraft from the Boeing family. It is a mid size, long haul aircraft set to redefine the intercontinental travel. 787 will reshape our travel itineraries to some extent as it enables non-stop flying from point to point location across continents. As far as India-US travel is concerned, Air India is already planning to start direct flights from cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc that would land in Seattle, Houston, etc. Boeing's order book is full until 2013, that does not mean they cannot service new orders. I saw the CEO in the TV mentioning that additional orders will be accommodated through the leasing agencies and also by adding more production capacities. Meanwhile AirBus is bringing in their competitive model, A350 which will fly by 2013. With the addition of these 2 aircrafts, there will be a definite boost in the air travel. Tickets are likely to get competitive and we might see significant increase in the international travel.
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