I am optimistic about the 787. However, I have a friend who was offered a senior engineering management position on the 787 early in the program. Without knowing too much about it, he transferred from the Long Beach plant and moved up to Washington...

He was absolutely astounded when he arrived and learned the true scope of what they are trying to do with that airplane. He is still suffereing engineering shell shock and working his tail off, as is everyone else involved.

Obviously this is not a trivial effort, but if they can pull it off, it will probably pay huge dividends. Gotta hand it to Boeing for breaking out of the mold and taking some risk to gain a strategic advantage...I was pleasantly surprised to see something of that scale and audacity coming from a US company these days...

Meanwhile, back in Brie-land...Airbus has hung it's hat on what may well turn out to be a niche-market white elephant, and has responded to the 787 with a warmed-over 300 series...