BOEING 787 FIRST COMMERCIAL FLIGHT WITH ANA - BUT ARE YOU GOING TO BUILD A KIT FROM REVELL OR ZVEZDA?

SMN report:

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has - after many delays - finally gone into passenger service, with the first fare-paying flight by lead airline customer All Nippon Airways (ANA). Years late, the Boeing twinjet is now rewriting the rules for lightweight construction, fuel economy, and passenger comfort. 

Injection kits

Meantime, what’s the state of play for scale model 787s? We’ve had a look at the two injection kits presently available, both to 1:144 scale. The Zvezda version came first, and is an extremely neat production. The 787’s trademark oversize windows are well represented, and though our particular kit had a small amount of warping on upper and lower wing halves, all that was needed on assembly was some gentle assistance from clothes pegs and tape. 

Careful with the fuselage join

The fuselage fits nicely, though as ever with airliner kits, you have to go carefully with the cement and be prepared to spend time with some very loving polish-and-buff to lose the centreline join. Engine assemblies are beautifully done, and would look great even at a larger scale.

Neat engines

The Revell kit is the new(ish) kid on the block, and we haven’t had a chance to build it yet. But a close look at the components shows that Revell has also made a very nice job of the engines, with the engine fans looking super-clean, especially for 1:144 scale. 

Price comparison

The Revell 787 seems to be a bit cheaper at most outlets, so this could be a decision point for you, though either kit will make a fair rendering of this latest jetliner. 

High flight

Have to say: I’m looking forward to having a flight in a 787, not least for the swish new interiors (above) and the view through the windows, which are larger than normal and darken at the press of a button. There's no hauling down a blind when you want to sleep - verree high tech!

Zvezda kit here.

Revell kit here.

More 787s here.

Thanks to Britmodeller for construction pix. Much more here.

Visit ANA here.

Flight simulator is used for training aircrew.

BOEING 787 DREAMLINER FIRST FLIGHT

And there she goes! Congratulations, Boeing.

And now let's see some really ace kits and models please!

BOEING 787 DUE TO FLY TODAY

She’s years late and way over budget, but finally Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner is ready for flight. As planned, the twinjet should take to the air later today from Paine Field Airport, north of Seattle, US.

Taxi tests earlier this week were successful, and Boeing’s big baby even lifted her nose briefly, though not before the test pilot had applied speed brakes to avoid an accidental liftoff. You can see this, and hear the roar of the thrust reversers in the video above. The 787’s a pretty plane by any standards, and while those engines - airlines have a choice of Rolls-Royce or General Electric designs - may be massive, they will be incredibly economical and low on emissions too.

For model fans however, there hasn’t yet been too much activity on the kit front where the 787’s concerned. An exception is Zvezda, a Russian company that already has a neat 1:144 scale 787 in production, and which is slowly filtering into the retail supply chain. As you can see from the component layout pic above, it’s a relatively simple kit of an important aircraft for which Boeing already has some 840 orders, and is well worth adding to any collection of 1:144 scale airliners.

Good luck to the 787 on her first flight today, the second major first flight this last week, after the European A400M airlifter.

Visit Zvezda’s interesting range here.

Zvezda's kit is becoming available at model stores and online suppliers; there's also a much smaller 1:400 Gemini Jets 787 you can see here.

Video courtesy David Parker Brown.

A400M AIRLIFTER MAKES FIRST FLIGHT AT LAST

The European A400M military airlifter, falling roughly midway in size between the 'Fat Albert' Hercules and the jet-powered C-17 has - at long last - made its first flight.

For air-buffs, it's been a race (with betting on some aviation sites) as to whether the A400M or Boeing 787 Dreamliner would be first (or second) into the air. Well today that particular race is over, with the years-late and way over-budget A400M finally turning from a paper project into real aircraft. Boeing meantime, promises a 787 first-flight before the year ends - it could come as early as next Tuesday.

As for us model fans, well we're still waiting too, so come on Revell-Germany - these aircraft have to be right up your street for 2010 release! In 1:144 scale, an A400M would make a good partner for the neat C-17 already available. The same goes for the 787, with rumours indicating we could see a model of this next year too. Once again, there's a bigger kit already out there, in the form of the A380 double-decker, so please let's get that 787 out of the world of dreams and into scale reality!