Up Close and Personal With the 787
Aug 20, 2014, 6:24 pm
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Join Date: Dec 2006
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Up Close and Personal With the 787
Now up in ASK THE PILOT: Beauty or a Beast? Up Close and Personal With the 787...
Let's put aside the Boeing 787's well-publicized technical foibles for a moment and focus on the lines of the thing -- the way it looks. I can't decide how I feel about it.
Mostly, I think, I like it. If nothing else it's got something that too many jetiners sorely lack: personality. The scourge of jetliner aesthetics nowadays is same-ness. Gone are the days when each aircraft, even those of similar sizes, had a distinct profile, and even the casual planespotter could tell a DC-10 from an L-1011 or 727 from a DC-9, from five miles away. Today most jets share the same generic blueprint: two underwing engines, a nondescript tail, and a nose that could be any other nose. Planes today look like snap-together kits of interchangeable parts.
So, kudos to the 787 for venturing outside this boring box. And unlike the A380 it does so in a way that is, for the most part, tasteful and stylish.
We love the rakish, steeply canted wings, for example. Man, those wingtips must be thirty-five feet off the ground. And there's something almost organic in the way they curve and taper. The scalloped engine nacelles (it reduces noise) are sexy, as are the twisty-curvy blades of the engine fans. It looks strong. It looks fast.
The beauty of any plane, though, is lost or made in the nose and tail. Here the 787 gets mixed grades...
Based on other people's comments, the nose seems to be one of those like-it-or-hate-it things. For me it works nicely. The cockpit windscreens are exceptionally sleek, almost fluid in the way they blend with the fuselage. It's an unusual look to be sure -- we're so accustomed to the boxy, sharp-cornered windows typically found up front (see the 737 for an example of how an ugly cockpit can handicap a plane's profile) -- but in the name of aerodynamic smoothness it's the way the cockpit windows should look. It's the nose of a bullet train, a sports car nose, and it helps the plane appear modern, even a touch futuristic, in a way unlike any other contemporary jetliner. And good for that.
Plenty of people don't like the nose, but I think the bigger problem is the tail. It isn't quite ugly, but it's awkwardly undersized. It's also...well...fishy. It looks like a fish. A graceful fish, but not a sexy fish. A salmon, maybe, as opposed to a shark or a barracuda. That's better than a steroidal beluga (the A380), but these oddly anthropomorphic curves and the skewed proportions are distracting. The lengthened 787-9 variant has a sleeker and more balanced look.
Overall a good-looking plane. Not a true beauty, but almost.
The published article includes additional commentary and several cool photos. You can see it here...
http://www.askthepilot.com/787-beauty-or-a-beast/
Enjoy,
PS
Let's put aside the Boeing 787's well-publicized technical foibles for a moment and focus on the lines of the thing -- the way it looks. I can't decide how I feel about it.
Mostly, I think, I like it. If nothing else it's got something that too many jetiners sorely lack: personality. The scourge of jetliner aesthetics nowadays is same-ness. Gone are the days when each aircraft, even those of similar sizes, had a distinct profile, and even the casual planespotter could tell a DC-10 from an L-1011 or 727 from a DC-9, from five miles away. Today most jets share the same generic blueprint: two underwing engines, a nondescript tail, and a nose that could be any other nose. Planes today look like snap-together kits of interchangeable parts.
So, kudos to the 787 for venturing outside this boring box. And unlike the A380 it does so in a way that is, for the most part, tasteful and stylish.
We love the rakish, steeply canted wings, for example. Man, those wingtips must be thirty-five feet off the ground. And there's something almost organic in the way they curve and taper. The scalloped engine nacelles (it reduces noise) are sexy, as are the twisty-curvy blades of the engine fans. It looks strong. It looks fast.
The beauty of any plane, though, is lost or made in the nose and tail. Here the 787 gets mixed grades...
Based on other people's comments, the nose seems to be one of those like-it-or-hate-it things. For me it works nicely. The cockpit windscreens are exceptionally sleek, almost fluid in the way they blend with the fuselage. It's an unusual look to be sure -- we're so accustomed to the boxy, sharp-cornered windows typically found up front (see the 737 for an example of how an ugly cockpit can handicap a plane's profile) -- but in the name of aerodynamic smoothness it's the way the cockpit windows should look. It's the nose of a bullet train, a sports car nose, and it helps the plane appear modern, even a touch futuristic, in a way unlike any other contemporary jetliner. And good for that.
Plenty of people don't like the nose, but I think the bigger problem is the tail. It isn't quite ugly, but it's awkwardly undersized. It's also...well...fishy. It looks like a fish. A graceful fish, but not a sexy fish. A salmon, maybe, as opposed to a shark or a barracuda. That's better than a steroidal beluga (the A380), but these oddly anthropomorphic curves and the skewed proportions are distracting. The lengthened 787-9 variant has a sleeker and more balanced look.
Overall a good-looking plane. Not a true beauty, but almost.
The published article includes additional commentary and several cool photos. You can see it here...
http://www.askthepilot.com/787-beauty-or-a-beast/
Enjoy,
PS
