I agree with Christiaan, contrary to popular belief, at least the media's belief, the 787 systems are, according to Boeing, in no way (except the power supply naturally) connected to the IFE systems, a lot of standards for this exist in the industry, they involve the use of 'air gaps' (the philosophy that systems should be separated to such a degree that they have no interconnection at all AND be physically separated to make electromagnetic interference very unlikely) and various other means to make sure the tech savvy 14 year old in seat 34 E doesn't disconnect the autothrottles from his laptop. About the use of new materials-well. I've heard differing opinions from several people about this, but stress testing nowadays can simulate thousands of landings / pressurizations / flight hours in a couple of months, nevertheless I would like to see how a carbon fibre airplane behaves during a gear up landing - I'm sure Boeing has that figured out though. The Conchorde comparison is quite adequate, after all the Conchorde was supposedly the most thoroughly tested plane before starting commercial ops, and I doubt Boeing will save money by cutting corners in their development process
