Boeing Co. employees cheer as a Boeing Co. 787 airplane takes off on its first flight Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009, at Paine Field in Everett, Wash. Pilots Michael Carriker and Randall Neville lifted off in the big blue and white jet at about 10 a.m. PST from Everett's Paine Field on a four-hour flight over Washington state, beginning the extensive flight test program needed to obtain the plane's Federal Aviation Administration certification.
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)