Boeing's Dreamliner is fastest-selling new jet

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner has set a blistering record for early sales.

Three months ahead of the planned July 8 rollout from the Everett factory of the first completed jet, Boeing has booked more than 500 orders, far outpacing all previous jet programs.

"We have clearly captivated the world's airlines with this airplane," said Mike Bair, head of the Dreamliner program, at a celebration of the milestone Tuesday.

"The order base has been ahead of any other airplane in history."

In the four-story atrium of Boeing's office complex in Everett, Bair announced that an order from Japan Airlines late last week pushed the Dreamliner past the 500 mark.

Subsequent orders from unidentified customers bring the latest tally to 514 firm orders from 43 customers, he said.

The fastest pace of orders on any previous program was for the 737 Next Generation series, which had 473 orders before the first one was ceremonially rolled out of the factory in December 1996.

The 737 is a much smaller single-aisle jet; such jets typically sell in far greater numbers than the bigger wide-bodies.

Among Boeing's wide-body planes, the pace of 787 orders is running at nearly four times that of the next most successful early seller, the 747 jumbo jet that rolled out in September 1968.

Some 3,000 to 4,000 employees working on the 787 program, mostly engineers, crowded the stairs and balconies above and below Bair as he spoke to the gallery. They whooped enthusiastically as Bair proclaimed the Dreamliner's success before television cameras.

Speaking to journalists afterward, Bair conceded that Boeing had "a little bit of luck" in the timing of its 787 offering — billed as a "super-efficient" alternative to current airplanes.

"With oil prices being what they are, [that's] driving a lot of the interest," he said.

Bair said Boeing will decide this summer about a potential ramp-up of production after 2009, and will likely give the go-ahead for a maximum 787 rate higher than that envisaged on the 777 program in the mid-1990s, which Bair pegged at seven jets per month.

"We can do better than that with the way this airplane goes together," Bair said.

Boeing hasn't disclosed its initial 787 production rate. But information from suppliers, confirmed by internal documents obtained by The Seattle Times, indicates Boeing envisages reaching a rate of seven jets per month in the year and a half after first delivery in 2008, then bumping up the production rate in 2010 to 10 per month — an unprecedented production rate for wide-bodies.

Bair cautioned that any rate increase would not mean a significant number of extra jobs in Everett.

The Dreamliner is now sold out through the end of 2012.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963