Boeing 787-8 (B788)

The Boeing 787-8 is the aircraft that introduced the Dreamliner and, with it, the idea that a mid-size twin could fly almost any long-haul route point to point. Boeing's thinking in the early 2000s, after it abandoned the near-sonic Sonic Cruiser study, was that airlines wanted efficiency and range rather than speed, so in 2004 it launched the 7E7, soon renamed 787, with an order from ANA. The promise was a 20% reduction in fuel burn per seat over the 767 it replaced, achieved with a composite airframe, more efficient engines and a fully electric systems architecture.

Delivering that proved far harder than selling it. Boeing had outsourced large sections of the airframe to partners worldwide and assembled them in Everett, and the supply chain struggled; the rollout on 8 July 2007 was of an aircraft held together with temporary fasteners. The first flight slipped to 15 December 2009 and ANA finally took the first delivery in September 2011, more than three years late. Four months after service entry, lithium-ion battery fires on two aircraft led the FAA to ground the entire fleet in January 2013, the first grounding of a US-certified type since 1979; redesigned battery enclosures returned it to service in April.

Once flying reliably, the 787-8 did what Boeing had promised. Its range of more than 7,300 nautical miles with 240 passengers let airlines open routes a 777 could not fill: United's Denver–Tokyo, Air India's Delhi–Melbourne, Norwegian's low-cost transatlantic flights, and dozens of secondary-city pairs. Many early customers later moved up to the larger 787-9 as their routes grew, and the -8 became the smallest seller of the three variants, but it remains in production and in demand with carriers whose markets suit a 240-seat aircraft. Around 400 have been built, with the line now in South Carolina.

Half of the 787's structure by weight is carbon-fibre composite, including the one-piece barrel fuselage sections and the wing, which lets Boeing use larger windows, a lower cabin altitude of 6,000 ft and higher humidity, because composites do not corrode or fatigue the way aluminium does. The electric architecture replaced engine bleed air for cabin pressurisation, wing anti-ice and engine start, with large generators on each engine and the lithium-ion batteries that caused the 2013 grounding.

The wing has a very high aspect ratio and raked tips with no winglets, and flexes visibly in flight; the trailing edge uses a variable-camber system that trims the flaps in cruise. Engines are either GE's GEnx-1B or Rolls-Royce's Trent 1000, both with serrated 'chevron' nacelle exhausts for noise, and the two are interchangeable on the airframe. The cockpit uses large displays and a head-up display, and the -8 shares a type rating with the -9 and -10 and, with differences training, the 777.

ANA and Japan Airlines, the launch operators, still fly large 787-8 fleets on domestic trunk routes and to Asia and North America. American Airlines, United, Air Canada and Aeroméxico use it across the Atlantic and Pacific; British Airways, LOT, Air Europa, TUI and Norse Atlantic operate it from Europe; Air India, Qatar Airways, Ethiopian, Kenya Airways, Royal Brunei and many others use it as a long-haul flagship or a flexible medium-haul widebody. Typical duties are long, thin routes of eight to sixteen hours and high-frequency medium-haul services where a 240-seat aircraft fills better than a 300-seat one.

The 787 was designed around passenger comfort and the -8 delivers the family's core benefits: a cabin pressurised to 6,000 ft rather than 8,000, higher humidity and quieter engines, which together leave you noticeably less dehydrated and tired after a long flight. The windows are about 30% larger than a 767's and darken electronically instead of using shades. The one thing to check is seat width: the cabin is narrower than an A350's, and while Boeing intended eight-abreast economy, almost every airline fits nine, giving a seat of about 17 inches. Overhead bins are large and pivot down, taking roll-aboards on their side. Mood lighting and the smooth composite wing make for a calm ride. For the best seat, choose a window in the forward economy cabin, ahead of the engines, and avoid the final rows beside the rear galley.

Dreamliners are the widebodies with the serrated, scalloped engine exhausts (the chevrons) and raked wingtips rather than winglets, on a wing that curves noticeably upward in flight. The cockpit windows are large and sweep back into the fuselage with a distinctive four-pane shape, and the nose is smooth and rounded. Telling a 787-8 from a 787-9 is about proportion: the -8 is 6 m shorter and looks stubby, with the wing and tail large for the fuselage, and it has four passenger doors per side set closer together. The -10 is longer still, with a long parallel section between the wing and tail.