Interesting. I was just reporting what they were saying on the air traffic control. It sounded like an air traffic controller asked the pilots of the 787 about the size, and the answer of "about the same" was given by the pilots of the plane
For purposes of pulling one up to a gate, and backwash if you're trailing behind one, that would be about right. The tower guys just get to look at the pretty planes. Some of the rest of us have to (well, almost) live in them, so I always think about interior layout first! Will be interesting to see how the airlines do go about configuring the seating in these. They haven't built any of the 787-9 models yet, but those should offer an easy 3-class configuration ... assuming the airlines still want them built that way by then.
What's interesting is that with the added efficiency, both the -8 and -9 will have greater range than any of the 767 models. The 767's all had the same size 'gas tank' - about 24000 gallons of jet juice, so as you got up in size, the range was commensurately reduced. The best range for those was the 767-200 which was good for about 6400 miles. The 787-8 is spec'd at around 8000 miles, and the larger 787-9 is expected to have an even greater range (maybe as much as 8500), so I guess that they're planning on more fuel capacity on the -9.
