Hitch a ride on an amazingly aerobatic Boeing 787
Boeing releases a second video of a 787 Dreamliner demonstrating how even a large commercial aircraft can pull off some incredible aerial stunts.
There's a good reason why Boeing cautions viewers not to attempt the below video on their own. Of course, I doubt that anyone happens to have a personal Boeing 787 parked in their driveway (and if you do, you're my new best friend), but by all means only professional test pilots should have this kind of fun.
As a teaser for the Farnborough International Airshow next week, Boeing took another 787-9 into the air with a thrilling near-vertical takeoff that you'd never experience as a passenger. It's just as jaw-dropping as the video we saw last year featuring a Vietnam Airlines 787-9, but this time the airliner is emblazoned with the livery of Japan's ANA (All Nippon Airways).
The video, which Boeing published Thursday on the company's YouTube page, begins with overhead shots of the Dreamliner taxiing onto the runway at Moses Lake, Washington. Located in a flat semi-arid portion of Washington State east of the Cascade Range, Moses Lake is home to a Boeing test facility.
It then takes off at a sharp angle that would make even the most courageous flyer sick while we watch it all happen from above and inside the cockpit and the cabin. After that, chase planes give us a view of the aircraft soaring above the airport before it returns for a landing.
But don't take my word for how stupendous the video is, enjoy for yourself all the way through.
Boeing made the 787-9 the centerpiece of its presence at the 2014 Farnborough show, which is held every two years at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire, UK. The successor to the 787-8, the 787-9 is 20 feet (6.1 meters) longer than the original Dreamliner and fits about 280 passengers. The airliner's first flight was in September, 2013, and the first delivery landed at Air New Zealand 10 months later.
