Originally Posted by
turbidus
How long will the "weather" wait be?
At the risk of feeding a consistent 'Boeing Basher' - it could be significant. Weather in the Seattle area in January isn't particularly conducive to the first flight requirements. Among other things, the takeoff will need to be to the north (there are highly populated areas directly south of Paine Field), at a time when the normal wind pattern is from the south (10 knot tailwind limit), and visibility needs to be good enough for visual tracking by chase planes when rain is forecast for at least the next week. Heck, weather very nearly delayed the original 777 first flight in 1994, and that was in June...
Of course that will do little to dissuade the Boeing critics who will happily proclaim the delays have nothing to do with the actual weather...