On Sunday, November 4th at 7:20 AM, United flew their first passenger flight with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It was a smashing success and a total sham all at once.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been in service for no more than a few months and already some Boeing test pilot has tagged the American Northwest like an Etch-a-Sketch with a 787 logo. Damn hooligans.

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner — the sixth 787 Boeing's made so far — took off from Boeing Field in Seattle in December 6, 2011. Yesterday, it landed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, having flown 10,710 nautical miles to set a distance record for a commercial jet of its weight. It's also a victory, of sorts, for carbon fiber.

This is the carbon-fiber Boeing 787 Dreamliner at 150% service load during the ultimate wing load test required for FAA certification. During the test, the wingtips underwent 25 feet of vertical deflection without failing. Engineering is awesome. [Boeing via Wired]

Today at 10 a.m. PST, two-and-a-half years after the plane was supposed to leave the ground, Boeing will send the first carbon fiber-bodied 787 Dreamliner into the air north of Seattle for its first test flight.