Chronicling the first flight of Boeing's 787

Update on March 7, 2010: The Herald’s coverage of the Boeing 787′s first flight won a national award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

I wore three pairs of socks, but forgot gloves.

Herald aerospace reporter Michelle Dunlop and I spent hours standing along airport runways — first in Everett, then in Seattle. My fingers felt frozen, and my socks (all six of them) were drenched.

It was all to see a big, metal airplane finally take to the skies.

I watched 787′s takeoff with Boeing employees who crowded shoulder to shoulder along the runway at Paine Field in Everett. The moment is captured in this footage, which I shot from a tripod balanced on my shoulders in order to clear the sea of heads.

To see more of our updates throughout the day, and the content that ran in a special first-flight section the next day, click here. And here’s my account of what happened during the few hours the plane was up in the air.

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