Museum of Flight makes Dreamliner permanent exhibit after Boeing donation

Boeing will donate a 787 Dreamliner to the Museum of Flight on Saturday.

The occasion will be marked by a mid-morning ceremony featuring Doug King, president and CEO of The Museum of Flight and Boeing leaders and employees.

Boeing first announced the donation in September.

The Dreamliner will be available to the public from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and all day Sunday. Visitors will be able to go inside the plane and see the inner workings of one of Boeing's most technically advanced designs.

The museum's 787 Dreamliner exhibit will be the first of its kind in the world.

After its weekend debut, the display will be closed to the public from Nov. 10 to Nov. 21 while it is being prepped for the permanent exhibit, according to a press release.

The ceremony and weekend exhibit will be free for all Boeing employees, retirees and suppliers, plus as many as six guests.

The donated Dreamliner was the third of its kind that Boeing built and was used to showcase the airplane around the world. This particular Dreamliner flew for the first time in March of 2010, and was flown to more than 20 countries around the world as part of the Dream Tour.

Boeing struggled with the earliest version of the Dreamliner after the lithium ion batteries short-circuited and caught fire. The planes were grounded in January 2013 after the incident and began flying again in May of that year after Boeing redesigned the battery and held no-passenger test flights.

Since then, though, sales of the Dreamliner have been good. Boeing has had 24 net orders for the 787 so far this year and 325 total since 2010.

- Source:  http://www.bizjournals.com