Rain fell on Paine Field on December 15, 2009, but the twelve thousand spectators stayed. They had come to see a machine that was half carbon-fiber dream. At 10:27 a.m., the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, chief pilot Mike Carriker and Captain Randy Neville at the controls, lifted off for a three-hour flight to Boeing Field. The swept composite wings flexed upward in a curve that seemed to defy the material's reputation for rigidity; they were lighter, stronger, and more elegant than any metal wing before them. Boeing had outsourced design and engineering across the globe and staked its future on plastics. Delays had mounted—first flight was two years late, billions over budget—but the airplane that finally emerged was a paradigm shift. About half its structure was built from advanced composites, promising fuel efficiency and passenger comfort from higher cabin pressure and humidity. On September 26, 2011, Boeing handed the first 787 to All Nippon Airways, its launch customer, and on October 26, the Dreamliner began revenue service. The 787 did not merely represent a new model; it represented a new material covenant between aviation and the periodic table. The Jet Age had begun with aluminum; the second century of flight would be written in carbon fiber.