Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" about to take of on maiden flight

I caught it just in time to see it take off. That was cool. I wonder why they didn't retract the landing gear.

I just saw the story, and I have a question, but I need to preface the question by stating: I have a fear of flying, and I've flown less than 10-12 times, usually from Dallas to Vegas or L A. I've only flown in 737's (I think)

My question is this, on these larger planes, is the ride smoother, or is there any difference at all?

Generally, the bigger the plane, the smoother the ride. Obviously there are a lot of factors that go into a smooth ride; however, on average, a bigger plane will yield a smoother ride overall.

Example: a storm in a smaller plane will feel worse than a storm in a bigger plane, even though you will probably still feel it in a large plane.

I adore this plane. It's even more elegant than the 777, if that's possible. Wonderful to see it in flight.

The gear, well, they may have left it down to monitor its effect on airspeed, lift etc. All that stuff has to be tested, though I suppose there's plenty of time for that. It also may have been to make it more visible in the bad weather given that they didn't appear to be climbing, at least nowhere near as quickly as it would on a normal flight.

Or it's broken.

As for bad weather and turbulence, this one really isn't much bigger than a 757 so if there's rough air, you're going to feel it but the 787 apparently has some new gust alleviation gizmo which is supposed to dampen turbulent effects. Love to see that in action.

the "up landing gear" motor is on back order.

Pilot: "Raise the landing gear."

787: "Sorry Dave."