American Airlines 787 Dreamliner Makes 1st Tulsa Visit

An American Airlines Dreamliner made a quick stop in Tulsa for training Tuesday morning. It's the first time a Boeing 787 has visited Tulsa.

The airplane arrived from Dallas at 6:05 a.m. It left for Houston at 8:10 a.m. and from there was scheduled to make a stop in Austin before returning to Dallas later in the day.

American Airlines is preparing the jet to enter service, so it came to Tulsa today for pilot training and so the ground crew could practice handling it. The training included rehearsing the emergency evacuation process.

A large portion of the 787 consists of carbon fiber, making it a much lighter and more fuel efficient airplane. Spirit AeroSystems' Tulsa facility makes parts of the wings.  

This same 787, tail number N800AN, crossed the Atlantic for its first international test flight last Wednesday, according to the flight tracking web site FlightAware.com. It took off from Dallas at 1:50 a.m., landed at London Heathrow Airport, then made the return flight to Dallas on the same day. 

American Airlines says the 787 will enter passenger service on May 7, 2015, flying between Dallas and Chicago. On June 4, it will shift to the company's international network, flying daily nonstop flights between Dallas and Beijing and Dallas and Buenos Aires.