The Boeing 787 family is growing. After introducing the 787-8 in 2007 and the 787-9 in 2013, the American manufacturer has just rolled out the "-10", as the longest version of its Dreamliner. Boeing presented its new plane to several thousand of its employees in the presence of the American president on Friday, February 17th in South Carolina. This came as a surprise after Donald Trump had strongly criticized Boeing in early December for the new Air Force One’s spiralling development costs, claiming they were "out of control". Trump praised the 787 programme, saying: “We are here today to celebrate American engineering and American manufacturing.”
The Boeing 787-10 will be assembled exclusively at this factory in North Charleston. The test aircraft will make its maiden flight "in the coming weeks", according to Boeing. It’s expected to begin service in 2018. Singapore Airlines will be its first operator.
In comparison to its two siblings, the Boeing 787-10 is the longest in the family. Measuring in at 224 ft (68 m), it has an 18 ft stretch over the 787-9, with its 206 ft (63m), as compared to 186 ft (57m) for the 787-8. As might be expected, it has greater capacity than previous versions, carrying 330 passengers, as opposed to 290 for the 787-9 and 242 for the 787-8. However, its range is significantly shorter at 6,400 nautical miles (11,900 km) as compared to 7,600 nmi (14,100 km) for the 787-9 and 7,300 nmi (13,600 km) for the 787-8. Its catalogue price is obviously higher at $306 million dollars against $265 million for the 787-9 and $225 million for the 787-8.
