Story highlights

Amazing Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner video shows impressive takeoff and turns

Flight was a rehearsal for Dreamliner performance at next week's Paris Air Show

Pilot: "It looks like the takeoff is at a near vertical 90 degree angle — trust me it's not."

CNN  — 

There’s a famous quote: “If you did it, it ain’t braggin’.”

Boeing did it – in front of a camera. An eyepopping rehearsal video Boeing released Thursday shows off its newest version of the Dreamliner aircraft — the 787-9 — performing some impressive and beautiful banks and ascents.

The takeoff alone will get your attention.

So maybe it’s not bragging, but the flight certainly qualifies as world-class swagger for the Dreamliner, which is scheduled for a performance next week at the Paris Air Show. Watch these breathtaking “technical maneuvers” — as Boeing calls them — while the Vietnam Airlines plane soars over Moses Lake, Washington.

CNN asked Boeing to share specifics about the takeoff and banking angles during the flight. The company preferred to keep aviation geeks guessing. A spokeswoman told CNN “we unfortunately aren’t sharing specifics about the profile such as bank angles at this time.”

It’s aviation eye candy to be sure, but an airline pilot warns that we shouldn’t be too impressed.

“Some of what you’re seeing on takeoff is a trick of perspective,” said 767 pilot Patrick Smith. “It looks like the takeoff is at a near vertical 90 degree angle — trust me it’s not.”

Typically, when passengers are on board, “a 20 degree pitch-up on takeoff is pretty strong,” said Smith, who also blogs on aviation at AskthePilot.com.

Related: What to watch for at the Paris Air Show

“Presumably the plane was very light because it wasn’t carrying any passengers, probably had a very light fuel load, no freight, so it would have been able to perform a steeper than normal ascent — but not to the extent the video seems to show,” Smith said.

“But for demonstration purposes, under lightweight conditions, it’s perfectly natural for this airplane to do that. It’s nothing dangerous.”

Inside the cockpit during the rehearsal, Smith said, the pilots may have been offering verbal cues to each other while keeping an eye on the airspeed, rate of climb, altitude — and on a 787, all these things are combined on the same display screen.

“If they’re pushing the envelope and having fun, they might be going a bit past what the command bars are showing, but just temporarily — again, it’s the Paris Air Show!”

The video lit up Twitter. Actor Rob Lowe’s tweet asked how “sh*tty are the seats?” And @KJMidday wrote: “My mouth literally dropped open.”

The Dreamliner family has been the darling of aviation enthusiasts around the world since the first version debuted in 2011. Its lightweight, fuel-saving superstrong carbon fiber materials and other cutting edge design features were touted as the future of the airline industry.

The dash-9, the latest version of the Dreamliner, first rolled off the assembly line in Everett, Washington, in 2013 and was delivered to its first customer, New Zealand Airlines, the next year. It’s longer and has a longer range than its predecessor, the 787-8.

The next Dreamliner, the 787-10, is expected to begin commercial service in 2018.