Perhaps It Should Be Called the iPlane

Now it is much more than a dream.

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner made its public debut on Sunday, without a hitch, before a cheering crowd of 15,000.

Tom Brokaw hosted the event at the Boeing plant in Everett, Washington, which was broadcast live to more than 45 countries in nine different languages, via satellite and webcast.

It was not just aviation nerds who were eager to eager to see the new plan. It was also the first look for media and financial analysts, who throughout more than three years of development have seen only artists' renderings.

Boeing and its shareholders have a lot riding on the success of the release. The Dreamliner will be the company's first new all-new plane since it introduced the 777 more than a decade ago.

After years of struggling to compete with the European consortium Airbus, the 787 project has been heralded as the return of the "old Boeing" - a bold, ambitious plan that will either put the aerospace giant well ahead of the pack - or set it back reeling for years to come.

Boeing has put all its chips down on itsconception of the "next generation of commercial aircraft." While Airbus focused on developing the super-jumbo, long haul A380 model, Boeing envisioned a light, sleek, and fuel-efficient model as the wave of the future. The 787 was designed to be latest in aeronautical technology, equipped with such revolutionary elements as a carbon fiber (rather than aluminum) airframe, a carbon fiber nose cap, and a titanium tail.

Boeing's stock is currently flying high on the record-breaking number of orders that started pouring in as early as 2004. Over the weekend, Boeing received 35 new orders for the 787 from Air Berlin and a Kuwaiti leasing company, bringing the total to 677 plane orders since 2004.

by Liz Gunnison