• Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, September 27, 2011 9:16 AM

Much of the action in the brand new ABC TV show "Pan Am" takes place inside a mockup of the first commercially successful jet airliner, the Boeing 707, which the company introduced in the 1950s. Now, in an odd bit of timing (Sunday night ABC debuted the program) Boeing on Monday rolled out its latest and most advanced commercial passenger jet, the 787 Dreamliner.

All Nippon Airways Co. was there to receive the planes as the carrier is first in line for the jets, taking delivery at the Boeing's manufacturing facility in Everett, Wash. The event was full of pomp and circumstance with 500 employees, local politicians and aviation industry insiders there to see Boeing hand over the ceremonial key for the new aircraft to All Nippon.

The first passenger flight from Narita, near Tokyo, to Hong Kong is set for Oct. 26. The plane, which will cost $185 million to $218 million, is the most advanced, fuel-stingy passenger jet ever made, per Boeing. It is the first large passenger jet to have more than half its structure made of composite materials like carbon fiber mesh. The company says the newly developed engines burn 20% less fuel than other planes of similar capacity.

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