Most people were probably distracted by President Obama, but if you look close, you can see the joint on the 787, meaning it has not been painted. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren / NYCAviation
Yesterday President Obama made a visit to the Boeing Factory at Paine Fieldand he was able to make a speech in front of United’s first 787 Dreamliner. The aircraft looked to be in standard United livery, making it seem that they might not be planning a special livery, but look a bit closer. You can see the joints of the plane, meaning it is not painted.
The Globe looked pretty good on this 787, but don't get attached. It is coming off -- at least for now.
The opportunity to have Obama stand in front of a 787 is something you do not want to pass up. Problem was that no 787 has been painted in an airline’s livery based in the US. No problem; you can slap some decals on the plane and make it look (on the most part) ready for service – and that is just what Boeing did.
United's "new" livery continues to grow on me and I think it will look good on the Dreamliner. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren / NYCAviation.
“The unfinished plane wore temporary decals showing United’s standard livery to serve as a backdrop for the event,” Mary Ryan with United communications explained to AirlineReporter.com. So now, the big question still remains: will United be painting their first 787 Dreamliner in a special livery?
Other Airline Stories of Interest
Checking in with the Grounded (for now) Boeing 787 Dreamliner
Hi-Res Photos: Norwegian Air’s First Boeing 787 Rolls Out of Paint- United Airlines Boeing 787 Makes Emergency Landing in Seattle
United Airlines Re-Inaugurates 787 Dreamliner Flights
Boeing Launches the 787-10 Dreamliner — Where Will it be Built?
Celebrating With American Airlines During a Special 777-300ER Delivery
Even the decals make the 787 look good!
Boeing did a nice job with the 787. Whether United decides to feature a new livery for the 787, that mock livery doesn’t look too bad.
This is the 5th to be delivered to UA anyways, so if they are doing a special livery for the first one it wouldn’t be on this airframe.
I saw a closeup of the engines and noticed that they had titanium fan blades. United inherited the 787 orders from continental and continental selescted the GEnx engine which has compsite fan blades.
I believe the GEnx engines do have titanium tipped fan blades as per the wiki page
“Composite fan blades with titanium leading edges.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric_GEnx
I also believe United had order 25 787s premerger (total of 50 with COs 25). Both Airlines ordered their 787s with GEnx engines
Tony you are correct about the titanium tipped fan blades but the photograph that I saw showed hollow titanium fan blades. Both Rolls Royce and Pratt are developing competing composite fan blades.
Who cares? The full livery is even uglier. Save the Tulip.
…And Debbie Downer (Chris), is the excess baggage that needs to be miss directed to Novosibirsk, Siberia. A very childish attitude to keep hold off.
Real paint or ‘stickers’ I don’t much care. We KNOW who United is and, (even if their service is – ahem…) The fly our flag. In the next round of fees and increases, maybe they will ask Uncle Sam to pay for painting our flag on the tail. You know, 2′ x 3.5′ – $500 per side. Big and Bold, max fill on the v.s., $1K per side, no extra charge for reversing it as necessary. Geeez!
@Lance: Novosibirsk is quite okay, but I liked Tomsk more. Irkutsk and Ulan Ude are okay as well. I did not particularly like Krasnoyarsk though.
Looks beautiful, can’t wait. Never cared for the Tulip (really that was a tulip?) Not as ncie as some of the old paint jobs from the 60s and 70s, but the best “modern” livery from either airline. Houston to Aukland is going to be a great ride on one of these.
Except it’s not modern and it’s a terrible livery. The globe is a horrible, dated, ugly piece of clip art that needs to die along with Jeff $mi$ek’s ego.
They should do two. One in the old United ‘Stars’ livery and one in Continentals old red/gold ‘paintball’ livery. That would be good!