The Boeing Co.’s new 747-8 passenger plane took to the skies above Everett just before 10 a.m. Sunday.
This is the first flight for the reddish-orange jumbo jet, called the Intercontinental. Boeing’s latest version of the 747 took off from Paine Field and flew for nearly four and a half hours
before landing at Boeing Field in Seattle.
“The airplane was ready; the weather was ready; it just went perfectly,” said Mark Feuerstein, chief pilot for the 747-8, at a press conference after the 747-8 Intercontinental landed.
Boeing plans to deliver the first 747-8 passenger plane later this year to a VIP customer. The company already is flight testing the freighter version of the 747-8 and hopes to deliver the first of that airplane mid-2011.
The company could fly its 747-8 passenger plane again later this week, Feuerstein said. A second 747-8 passenger plane will join flight testing in the next few weeks.
The Intercontinental’s flight test program gains some advantages from flight testing already done on the 747-8 Freighter, which took its first flight in February 2010. The freighter test program has made more than 800 flights, Feuerstein said.
“Obviously we’ve benefited from almost a year of work,” he said.
The company has won 38 orders for its 747-8 passenger plane, including an order from Air China that still needs government approval.
Boeing executives believe first flight will help boost sales for their new jumbo jet, which seats 51 passengers more than its predecessor, the 747-400.
“2011 truly is a great year and it is the year of the 747,” said Elizabeth Lund, vice president of the 747 program.
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