B787 To Paint Shop This Morning

While I'm waiting for permission to post a picture of it, the first predominately CFRP commercial airliner has been rolled out of final assembly and moved to Boeing's paint hangar in Renton in preparation for rollout in early July and first flight at the end of the summer.

There will be obstacles ahead and much is to be learned.

We have repeatedly stated here that the technology we're seeing unfold, and the production methods and processes now vindicated mark a tectonic shift in the way commercial aircraft will be made from here on in.

This ought to be food for thought for those in Toulouse. It's really happening, and it's no use denying it.

The future is now, and it ain't with dinosaurs and half measures. The fellows in Toulouse ought to study and inwardly mark the photo of the National Airlines Stinson Trimotor, which was a contemporary of the Douglas DC3 but is now largely unmourned and unremembered, although Stinson built good sturdy airplanes.

In fact I'd just bet I'm the only person in the world who woke up this morning thinking about the Stinson Trimotor.

Photo credit ACCA, Flying For 1936.