The story of the Dreamliner — as told in Guy Norris and Mark Wagner’s 2009 book — demands a relook at the price of innovation
As investigators from India, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and Boeing probe the cause of the crash of Boeing 787‑8 Dreamliner — the first fatal hull-loss of a model previously lauded for its advanced safety, efficiency, and passenger comfort — the aviation industry and the public are asking tough questions: How did what many considered a near-perfect plane fail so catastrophically? What does this incident mean for Boeing’s 787 legacy and its groundbreaking technologies? Against this tragic backdrop, reading Guy Norris and Mark Wagner’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner (Zenith Press, 2009) reveals great insight about the Dreamliner’s journey.
In the early 2000s, Boeing was at work on a radical high-speed “Sonic Cruiser” concept. But after the post-9/11 shock and rising fuel prices, airlines demanded efficiency over speed. Boeing shelved the delta-wing cruiser in 2002 and turned to a slower, more fuel‑sipping design, the project code‑named 7E7.
By April 2004, the new programme was officially launched with an order from All Nippon Airways, targeting 2008 deliveries. Rolled out to fanfare in 2007, the Dreamliner promised to be an aviation “game-changer”. Its development, as Guy Norris and Mark Wagner document, would prove “troubled but also path-breaking”.
How Boeing reinvented widebody architecture
Over a decade, the 787 overcame cascading delays and technical hurdles to become one of Boeing’s most eagerly sold jets. The airliner both awed the world with innovation and reshaped the industry, launching nonstop routes which were once thought impractical, inspiring new designs, and carrying hundreds of millions of passengers to different corners of the world. It would become Boeing’s first all-new jetliner since the 777, directly aimed at matching the market’s demand for long-range economy.
One distinct design feature that survived from the early days of the 7E7 through to the real thing was the flush nose and nontraditional (for Boeing) flight deck windows.
Rival Airbus had just debuted the giant A380, but Boeing bet on a mid-size twin-aisle that, unlike its predecessor designs, would use 50% carbon-fibre composites by volume (and about half the plane by weight). The strategy paid off: analysts called the Dreamliner “the first commercial jetliner to extensively use lightweight carbon composite construction”. In short, Boeing reinvented widebody architecture, combining new materials, novel systems and a global production model to answer airlines’ call for lower operating costs and expanded point-to-point flying.
The Dreamliner’s “secret sauce” is its airframe: roughly half the structure (by weight) is carbon‑fibre composite, making it lighter and stronger than aluminum. Boeing Technical Fellows later confirmed that extensive composite use delivered on efficiency and durability promises. As Kaitlin Stansell of Boeing explained, the 787 “entered history as the Boeing commercial airplane with the most extensive use of composite materials,” giving it a breakthrough in weight reduction. These materials also let Boeing pressurize the cabin to a lower equivalent altitude and run higher humidity, meaning passengers feel noticeably better after long flights.
Also read: Boeing 787 Dreamliner: An airliner with a history of technical snags
Other innovations included replacing most hydraulic systems with advanced electrical ones (the Dreamliner is sometimes described as “more electric” than any prior airliner), plus new fuel‑efficient engines (GE and Rolls‑Royce GEnx or Pratt & Whitney PW1000G) to boost range. Boeing proudly touted the 787’s interior comforts: it has “the largest windows in the sky” (dimmable at the push of a button), LED mood lighting, and enhanced air quality so travellers “arrive feeling more refreshed”. In short, Boeing designed the Dreamliner around both airline economics and a modern passenger experience, promising quieter cabins, gentler rides and real fuel savings.
Ceremonial first flight to Tokyo
Boeing also revolutionised how it built the jet. Instead of keeping major assembly in-house, the company outsourced 787 parts fabrication to some 50 suppliers worldwide. Giant composite fuselage barrels were moulded in Italy and Japan; wings came from Japan and South Carolina. The completed sections had to be brought to Boeing’s final assembly lines in Everett and Charleston.
To bridge this gap, Boeing created the massive “Dreamlifter” transport planes — modified 747s with bulging fuselages — to ferry wing and fuselage pieces literally around the world (as shown above). This global supply chain was unprecedented in commercial jet manufacturing and enabled Boeing to tap supplier expertise, but it also created new complexities that would contribute to later delays.
Nose-on, the residual "brow" and four-panel windshield remained the most prominent telltale features of Boeing's innovative design approach.
On July 8, 2007, Boeing unveiled the first 787 in front of a live audience of 15,000 (and thousands more via webcast) at its Everett factory. The roll-out was an extravagant affair — after years of design work — and Boeing proudly displayed the new widebody’s composite shine. But trouble was only around the corner: parts shortages and out‑of‑sequence builds were already pushing the schedule.
Also read: Ahmedabad plane crash: A rare tragedy for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner
By late 2007, Boeing began announcing slips. In September, Boeing postponed the planned first flight from late 2007 to the following spring, blaming misaligned production and software integration issues. It was a prelude to multiple slips: the 787’s first flight finally took off from Paine Field on December 15, 2009, nearly a year later than initially hoped.
Despite these hurdles, the Dreamliner performed well in flight tests. The rollout had spurred new factory capacity — notably a second assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, announced in 2009 — but the first aircraft still came from Everett. Boeing intended to deliver the first jet to ANA in 2008; in reality the handover only occurred on Sept. 25, 2011 — more than three years after the originally promised date.
ANA’s ceremonial first flight to Tokyo, on October 26, 2011, marked the Dreamliner’s commercial debut. Behind the scenes, engineers were scrambling through test flights. By early 2011, fleets in Japan and the US were completing thousands of flight hours to qualify various systems and engines. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European regulators formally certified the Dreamliner in August 2011, clearing the way for full production ramps.
