Ready for ANA's big 787 day

Finally arrived here in Tokyo in time for an early morning bus ride tomorrow to Narita airport and the historic departure of ANA's flight NH7871 to Hong Kong - the first passenger flight of the Boeing 787.


A postcard from the crew of my ANA flight earlier today.


A United 747-400 overtakes us mid-Pacific


GE90-115B purring away


Waiting in the wings - the star of tomorrow (Boeing)

Touching down here in an ANA 777-300ER at the end of the long flight from LAX (thanks to Masako Okamoto and the crew of NH005 for an extremely pleasant journey), it occured to me the last time I was in Japan was in 2006 for Boeing's 787 round-the-world trip. We circumnavigated the globe in an ex-Pan Am 727-100 formerly used by tennis star Andre Agassi, visiting Boeing's 787 production facilities in Charlesrton, Italy and Japan. After a final refuelling stop in Almaty, Kazakhstan we touched down in Japan to see the early industrial progress at KHI, MHI and IHI.  It was then - five years and four months ago - we saw the first wing skins for ZA001 fresh out of the autoclave at MHI. 

It all seems a long time ago now, and who could have predicted the events that were to unfold. Here's hoping for smoother skies ahead as Boeing focuses on its production ramp-up and ANA starts earning revenue with the 787.

Tags: tw99, ANA, Boeing, 787, Japan, 777, Narita, Tokyo