Los Angeles man to fly on Dreamliner's maiden voyage
October 25, 2011, 04:28 pm
Thomas Lee, a southern California resident, was recently awarded with a spot on the inaugural passenger flight of Boeing's newest Dreamliner 787. This makes him the only person to travel on the maiden flights of the first Boeing 747, Airbus A380 and now the Dreamliner, according to USA Today.
Tickets for the first voyage were highly competitive. According to a Reuters report, 25,505 people applied for the 100 available public seats on the airplane's debut flight for Air Nippon Airways, from Tokyo, Japan, to Hong Kong, China. One pair of tickets sold at auction for more than $11,000, according to Reuters.
Lee told USA Today that although so many passengers applied for the open seats, he was able to plead his case to ANA officials, saying that his story was compelling.
"I think they saw the opportunity to let me let me continue that dream," Lee told USA Today in Tokyo. "I'm enormously appreciative they came to that conclusion."
Boeing's Dreamliner includes more composite materials in its construction than any passenger aircraft in history, according to Reuters. Many independent pilots, whether they fly state-of-the-art experimental aircraft or vintage planes, choose to take out pilot insurance policies, which include aviation-specific allowances that the average life insurance policy does not account for.
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