After much delay and great anticipation, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner finally took to the sky on Tuesday December 15 on its first flight. The aircraft departed before an estimated crowd of more than 12,000 employees and guests from Paine Field in Everett, Washington.

“65 years of empowering the global community through aviation” is the theme of the 2009 edition of International Civil Aviation Day, celebrated annually on 7 December to mark the creation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on that day in 1944.