747-8 First Flight

UPDATE 22 : And she's in the air!!

UPDATE 21 : BOE501 beginning take off roll!

UPDATE 20 : BOE 501/H is at the end of the runway ready to roll

UPDATE 19 : RC 501 will take off to the north

UPDATE 18 : RC 501 has started taxiing ot Rwy. 34L

UPDATE 17 : Control Surface checks are on going before taxiing

UPDATE 16 : Aircraft door being closed. Airstairs are being pulled away

UPDATE 15 : Inboard engines are spooling up. Aircraft should taxi at 12:30 PM PST

UPDATE 14 : Engines are coming on!

UPDATE 13 : Boeing's Live Feed Reporting to resume soon. Engines start coming up soon.

UPDATE 12 : Boeing now saying that take off is within the next hour.

UPDATE 11 : Increasing clear skies and Boeing employees walking back outside...a good sign now!

UPDATE 10 : In somewhat related news, Dreamliner 1 will be flying at 11:30 PM PST and Dreamliner 2 will be in the air at 12 noon PST.

UPDATE 9 : Now reporting blue sky at Everett! Maybe they can go now? Stay Tuned...

UPDATE 8 : Guy Norris is reporting that the revised window for first flight is rumored to be between 1 noon and 2 PM PST

UPDATE 7 : Reports are that skies are clearing very, very slowly. Employees are leaving the area to go back to work...I guess they're still not sure about when the flight will go off, and to top it all off, Boeing Webcast has gone offline. We're in for a quite a wait.

UPDATE 6 : Boeing is saying up to a 30 minute delay because of the weather. Still waiting for that low hanging clouds to leave the area.

UPDATE 5 : Report that the aircraft is moving! Boeing's Web cast is live.

UPDATE 4 : Flightblogger reporting flight crew is on the airplane

UPDATE 3 : Fog is starting to burn off. Current weather is cloudy with low hanging clouds and the temp is around 45 degree F. It is expected that the sun would be out but it is possible that Boeing can hold off on engine start due to the low ceiling. Boeing needs to have a 5 mile visibility and a 5000 ft cloud ceiling for today's flight. We're about 35 minutes away from 10:10 AM PST take off time for the first 747-8.

UPDATE 2 : Fog is rolling into Everett some observers are reporting

UPDATE 1 : Just up on Flightaware: BOE501/B748 has just filed a flight plan. It is scheduled to depart from KPAE (Snohomish County) at 10:00 PST heading for KPAE (Snohomish County) for an
estimated arrival at 14:00 PST.
Expected route: V23 BEZOV ISLND V165 CVV JAWBN TOU TOU080055 TOU 4752 4358 4752
JAWBN WEBVE
For more information visit http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BOE501

I'll be reporting and updating this post throughout today to document the first flight of the first 747-8. The aircraft successfully completed it taxi tests on Saturday in preparation for today's flight.

Currently the weather in Everett is 44 degrees F and cloudy but around flight time the weather is expected to be partly sunny with a temperature of 46 degrees F.

The plan is for the 747-8 to take off and test the initial aircraft response. The aircraft will return to Everett after its first flight. After a couple of days, Boeing will base this aircraft from Moses Lake, International Airport for the remainder of the initial airworthiness tests. After the 747-8 has completed this milestone RC501 as well as RC 521 and RC 522 will all be flown out of Palmdale, California for the remainder of the test flight program so as to not to interfere with 787 testing going on at Boeing Field. Typically, Boeing runs test flights out of Boeing Field but with two major programs entering flight test, Boeing decided to separate the two test flight programs. Please check back here during today for updates on the first flight. You can also follow me on Twitter.