Dreamliner debuts to cheers and a gray sky

EVERETT, Wash., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Boeing's Dreamliner aircraft, two years overdue, took off on its maiden flight near Everett, Wash., Tuesday, collecting accolades from its creators.

"It's more environmentally friendly, it's more efficient, uses less fuel, it's going to cost the operator less to fly, it's going to allow the passengers to pay less and feel better when they land," said Boeing Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Albaugh.

Albaugh called the Dreamliner a "game changer," CNN reported Tuesday.

It may, as well, be a game saver. Boeing has orders for 850 of the planes that have a sticker price of about $150 million.

Albaugh said he agreed with Scott Hamilton, an aviation consultant who explained the Dreamliner's delays as a case of "too much outsourcing, too soon, with too little oversight."

Albaugh said, "in hindsight … there are a few things we might have kept inside, yes."

The Seattle Times said Dreamliner No. 1 took to the skies -- albeit gray skies – at 10:27 a.m. on "slender composite plastic wings (that) swept sharply upward in a graceful wingtip-to-wingtip curve" as thousands of Boeing employees cheered.