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Boeing's 787 Makes Its Inaugural Flight首航

MELISSA BLOCK, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

MICHELE NORRIS, host: And I'm Michele Norris.

When it comes to flying, the thrill is gone已經不再令人感到興奮了. Instead of fun, we now have long lines, TSA pat downs美國運輸安全局的全身拍摸檢察, and legrooms伸腿空間that seem to shrink each year. But there was quite a bit of excitement today when Boeing's much-anticipated充滿期待的 787 made a four-hour, eight-minute flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. The new long-haul jet長途飛機/遠程飛機 has been called the iPod of the Sky, with its sleek design時髦的設計 and impressive fuel efficiency令人驚嘆的低油耗/省油性能. The plane is built from lightweight composite plastic高科技極輕的組合塑膠 reinforced with carbon fibers碳纖維.

240 passengers were on today's maiden voyage處女航 and we were fortunate to track down找到 one of them. His name is Scott Mayerowitz. He's a reporter for the AP美聯通訊社. Welcome to the program.

SCOTT MAYEROWITZ: Thanks for having me.

NORRIS: Do me a favor幫我一個忙, first. Describe this plane. What does it look like?

MAYEROWITZ: The very basic, it's a regular plane. But then you walk inside and there's a sort of open arching space拱型空間. They call it the dome圓頂. And your eyes just naturally gravitate up視線很自然會往上移(強調空間不具壓迫感). And there are sort of sleek edges時髦的設計細節 to everything, nice colors, and you suddenly feel like, oh, maybe this isn't going to be so bad. You walk a few rows幾排座位 back, find your seat and there's a giant window next to you. Yeah, the seat is just the same old uncomfortable seat as you've had for many flights. But you got this big window and you're too busy playing with it...

MAYEROWITZ: ...you don't realize what's around you. The overhead bins吊掛箱 are really big and you just kind of ease your bag into the bin輕輕鬆鬆就能將行李滑入吊掛箱裡. You close it and you're sort of looking up at this larger ceiling. The engineers tell me it's not that much higher. But it feels that much higher just because of the way it's designed.

NORRIS: Now, I want to go back to the windows because there's a lot of talk about these windows. They're bigger than the standard一般的/標準的, small, sort of 8 x 11 sized windows in most planes. How big are they?

MAYEROWITZ: They are about 30 percent bigger than in a normal plane. And it lets in a lot more light. And the really cool thing, there are no shades窗簾 on them. If you've got direct sunlight coming in, all you have to do is press a little button and there are five different levels where you can add tint to the window這邊的設計是只要按一個小按鈕，玻璃會自動變色，一共有五種不同深淺的玻璃色，按照乘客需要的光線強弱做調整. It's sort of like those sunglasses you see people wear, that to go from clear to very dark in just a few minutes.

NORRIS: Now, the wings on this plane are a little bit different. On take off起飛時, they actually move and slightly arc機翼會輕微拱起 in a way that a bird's wings might很像鳥在飛行時的翅膀. Could you describe that for us?

MAYEROWITZ: It's a little bit of a flapping on the end在機翼的尾端有種鼓翼振翅翱翔的感覺. And then, as you come into flight, it just curves up.飛行時機翼會彎起來 It's really cool. Look out the window and here's a very rigid堅硬的 piece of metal that's holding you and 239 other people up in the air. But yet it's bending in the wind. It's really an interesting sight.

NORRIS: Now, I've been asking you about the plane. I want to know a few things about the passengers. I understand there are people who paid a lot of money to be among the first to take this flight.

MAYEROWITZ: I was amazed. There were 116 passengers on the flight besides a bunch of media and dignitaries媒體人與尊貴顯赫人士. Six of them had actually bid for投標 business-class seats on them. One paid as much as $32,000 for his one seat. And then there was a couple that paid about 19,000 for their pair of seats. And they just said they love to fly. They think this plane is great and they want to be part of history.

NORRIS: Were they satisfied?

MAYEROWITZ: I think so. What I found really funny was they paid all this money for this business-class seat and they were back in coach經濟艙with everybody else. They wanted to party. They wanted to talk to people. They wanted to experience the plane.

I've never seen such a long line for an aircraft bathroom before. Everyone wanted to check out the bathroom and use it. Part of it is there's a window in there, which is just really cool. And part of it is bigger difference, a lot more quiet bathroom. And these are the type of people who wanted to check that out.

NORRIS: I've been talking to AP reporter Scott Mayerowitz about Boeing's much-anticipated 787, which made its maiden voyage today from Tokyo to Hong Kong. Scott, thanks so much.

MAYEROWITZ: Thanks for having me.