The fifth plane in the fleet, known as ZA005, the first powered by the new GEnx engines, took it’s first flight today from Paine Field. The coolest thing about this event, is that I got to watch it in real time thanks to a real time Qik feed from Airline Reporter.

Sure, it was a little small when I was watching it live, but here’s the full size, HD quality video that Airline Reporter shot:

GE and Boeing expect that the first of the GEnx powered Dreamliners will be delivered in mid 2011. Boeing will make 2 engine options available for the 787 Dreamliner, one option will be to have the plane powered by the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines and the other option is to have power by the new GEnx engines.

GE says that its engines are 30% quieter than the Rolls Royce ones. The GE engines are also the first to have the front fan case and fan blades made of carbon fiber composites. By the way, the fan case and fan blades are made “down the street” from me in San Marcos, TX at C-fan.

Here’s some footage from the King 5 TV channel helicopter of ZA005 taking off on its maiden flight.

I’m still amazed by how much the wings bend on take off. It’s truly a beautiful plane.