Thanks, Daniel! :-)The 789's wings are mostly carbon fiber. The CF gives the wings the torsional rigidity necessary to keep the raked wingtips from twisting the wing (thus altering angle of attack of the outer panels) with disastrous results (i.e. high-speed wing aeroelastic flutter). See this

!My main concern with CFRP - Carbon-Fiber Reinrced Polymer, is delamination from lightning: Gone is the aluminum skin covering everything, so gone is the Faraday Cage! Now the electrical conductors (carbon fibers) sit inside the plastic: As lightning hits the carbon fiber vaporizes and explodes the plastic, significantly weakening the structure, similar to when lightning hits a tree, vaporizes the water in the veins and the wood explodes. Then after your aircraft disintegrates in midair, it's still 6 miles down to the ocean. Then after you make it to the water, if you survie, there's still sharks! And if the sharks don't get you, there's always hypothermia. And if the hypothermia doesn't get you, you still have to swim 3,000 nm to the nearest continent! :-)Cheers,- jahman.

Even a 100 nm swim wouldn't be very nice. Even 20nm can make your skin so soft its quite easy to tear it off.........I think we can call this the 'green rush to block drilling'. Why? Well if we allowed drilling for oil without regulation, our fuel would probably cost around 20-30 cpl (not including stupid Government taxes!!!). The whole of Alaska's North slope is locked up so the enviro-##### can feel 'happy'.I would prefer less environmental controls and more safety as in aluminium airframes and wings!!I will stick to the 777s.Mind you I would love to see what a refitted 767 (2-3-2 in economy) would be like, if they could raise the height of the cabin a bit. But the 777 is so nice. I don't think the 789 is as wide as the 777 either.Daniel

Even a 100 nm swim wouldn't be very nice. Even 20nm can make your skin so soft its quite easy to tear it off.........I think we can call this the 'green rush to block drilling'. Why? Well if we allowed drilling for oil without regulation, our fuel would probably cost around 20-30 cpl (not including stupid Government taxes!!!). The whole of Alaska's North slope is locked up so the enviro-##### can feel 'happy'.I would prefer less environmental controls and more safety as in aluminium airframes and wings!!I will stick to the 777s.Mind you I would love to see what a refitted 767 (2-3-2 in economy) would be like, if they could raise the height of the cabin a bit. But the 777 is so nice. I don't think the 789 is as wide as the 777 either.Daniel

Delta flies their 777-200LR into Sydney from LAX.Daniel