Boeing 787 Dreamliner

by Mark R. Wagner, Mark R. Wagner (Illustrator)

With the launch of its superjumbo, the A380, Airbus made what looked like an unbeatable bid for commercial aviation supremacy. But archrival Boeing responded: Not so fast. Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner has already generated more excitement--and more orders--than any commercial airplane in the company’s history.

This book offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the first all-new airplane developed by Boeing since its 1990 launch of the 777. With hundreds of photographs, Boeing 787 Dreamliner closely details the design and building of Boeing’s new twin-engine jet airliner, as well as the drama behind its launch.

Here are the key players, the controversies, the critical decisions about materials and technology--the plastic reinforced with carbon fiber that will make this mid-sized widebody super lightweight. And here, from every angle, is the Dreamliner itself, in all its gleaming readiness to rule the air.

Genres: Aviation, Nonfiction, Technology

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 11, 2005

Reviews

[Mike]

the 87 is my favorite of the Boeing line, I remember following the media frenzy around it when it first became public and finally being able to tour one at the Museum here in Seattle was amazing. Having said that....

This book is definitely more technically oriented then I initially thought. A lot of discussion into the "why" behind the design concepts and the behind the scenes challenges faced when developing this new concept. It is easy to look back now and not fully grasp how much innovation went into this airframe, but remember, this plane changed everything! From the multitude of countries involved in the build of every aircraft, to how it is assembled and everything in between.

The book can be dry in it's presentation if you're expecting a memoir of sorts, there are plenty of other books out there that fall in that genre. This one walks you through all the challenges faced from a moderate technical perspective and offers insight to the learning curve that redefined air transportation.

Bonus, TONS of pictures!

[Jose]

Great behind the scenes pictures and documentation,well-written. However I can tell the author's bias on not wanting this beautiful Plane to succeed which ultimately it did, I believe it focused towards the end too much on the bad and not enough on the good. I have their other books which are great, For the 787 I recommend this book but more so Luisada and Kimmell's 787 dreamliner book which while smaller is pretty good.

[Buggz79]

From concept to actualization of the next generation passenger aircraft. Beautiful pics too

[Robert]

Very informative and well written. Perhaps a bit too much detail, but not for those interested in aviation.

[Shivam]

The book I read was Boeing 787 Dreamliner by Mark Wagner. The book was about a great journey on manufacturing the Boeing 787 inside the Everett, Washington factory. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was designed to be one of the most quietest planes out there holding two General Electric and Rolls Royce Trent engines. The wing curve gives glide calling it the Dreamliner. Boeing had to make constant delays to fix all bugs including one big one with the mounting of the wings causing cracks to the fuselage. The 787 was tested many times for maximum wing overload along with takeoff speed calculations and pressure leaks. After many months of delays when the Boeing 787 came out they got many more orders due to customer satisfaction. I loved the book because it provided deep and detailed specifications and pictures to give a perspective of how the Boeing 787 formed by each step.

The book provided such details on the jet engine like " The GEnx-1B undergoes hail test site 4D at the speed of 60,000 rotations per minute". This is a great detail because as the engine is accelerating at such a high speed hail is being thrown into the engine and instead of RPM the author tells you rotations per minute. I have the review of the book 4 out of 5 because there were some parts of the book that weren't so great such as the explanation of air wing lift. The explanation was not strong enough to give a good understanding.

[Daniel Bratell]

This books covers the development of Boeing 787 (Dreamliner) from the late 90s to mid 2010, which means, it ends before the first deliveries, but after the first flights (according to wikipedia it "entered commercial service on October 26, 2011").

As literary work it will never be considered great. As a story it also leaves a lot to the reader. It never dives into the causes or effects beyond what is told on press conferences.

I started reading this book because I was curious, and continued reading it because I work in an industry with as much attention and pressure as the airline industry. I had hoped I would be able to learn from their mistakes but since the book never actually concluded where things went wrong, or where the mistakes were made, it's hard to learn.

The only wisdom I bring home is that too tight deadlines lead to mistakes which increases the delays, but that is not something revolutionary. Setting deadlines is always a guesswork between what is feasible and achievable and what is acceptable by the market, and having to make tough decisions close to the deadline is part of any large project.

So a total of two stars for the effort, and because I don't know of any better book if you're interested in this project.

[Steven]

In light of the problems the 787 has had of late, including being grounded by the FAA,this was an interesting book. A bit dry as there's lot's of technical details, especially regarding the engineering and production processes. Which are amazingly complex...its a testament to engineering that these huge machines fly millions of miles safely all over the world.

Really interesting was the chapters about the 787's evolution and how the design process played out. Boeing originally had a completely different plan in mind for a next-generation airplane, but the attacks of 2001 had a huge part in changing those plans

This book isn't that timely, however, as it only goes up to right before the first flight. Thanks to a myriad of production production problems there were numerous delays - I'm sure the authors had deadlines to make and the 787's birth was not playing along! A revised edition might be interesting, covering the first flights, testing, and of course, the battery problems that have surfaced the last 3-4 months.

[Abbe]

With the launch of its superjumbo, the A380, Airbus made what looked like an unbeatable bid for commercial aviation supremacy. But archrival Boeing responded: Not so fast. Boeing's 787 Dreamliner has already generated more excitement—and more orders—than any commercial airplane in the company's history.

This book offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the first all-new airplane developed by Boeing since its 1990 launch of the 777. With hundreds of photographs, Boeing 787 Dreamliner closely details the design and building of Boeing's new twin-engine jet airliner, as well as the drama behind its launch.

Here are the key players, the controversies, the critical decisions about materials and technology—the plastic reinforced with carbon fiber that will make this mid-sized widebody super lightweight. And here, from every angle, is the Dreamliner itself, in all its gleaming readiness to rule the air.

[Willie]

It's a half-baked book. It ends after the first flight and left me asking, "That's it?" I almost gave up reading it because it contains tons of boring technical stuff. Considering years have already gone by, the authors should have updated this book like controversies surrounding its on-board batteries causing fire in the jetliner.

[Wayne]

mostly pictures

[Michael Boult]

Very good