Departing just after dawn, Boeing's first 787 Dreamliner, newly delivered to All Nippon Airways, departed Paine Field at 07:17 local time enroute to Tokyo's Haneda airport.
The heavily fuelled aircraft, JA801A, took off on Runway 16R with 42 aboard for the approximately 9h 40min flight to Tokyo.
Powered by twin Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines rated at 64,000lb (284kN) of thrust for short and medium-haul operations the aircraft's main landing gear left the ground with approximately 4,000ft (1,200m) remaining on the 9,000ft (2,700m) runway.
The aircraft is expected to arrive in Tokyo after 09:00 local time and will begin a roughly month-long process of training crews and pilots to operate the newly certified type.
The first formal service is a charter flight on 26 October between Tokyo Narita and Hong Kong, followed by introduction to revenue service on the Tokyo Haneda to Okayama and Haneda Hiroshima routes. The first long-range service is expected to begin in January connecting Haneda and Frankfurt.
ANA says it expects to receive its second aircraft, Airplane 24, in mid-October, and anticipates delivery from Boeing of at least two 158-seat long-haul configured aircraft, both with upgraded Trent 1000 Package B engines, before the end of 2011.
ANA expects to take delivery of all 55 of its 787s by the close of its 2017 fiscal year on 31 March 2018.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
