EVERETT (Reuters) — Boeing Co's new lightweight carbon and titanium Dreamliner lifted off a runway for the first time into cloudy skies yesterday after more than two years of delays.

The 787 Dreamliner's highly anticipated flight was witnessed by several thousand Boeing employees, industry VIPs, aeroplane enthusiasts and reporters, but excitement and relief rippled throughout the aerospace industry.

"This really sends the message that this is a real aircraft. It'll take time but this provides badly needed stability for the programme," said Richard Aboulafia, aerospace analyst at research firm Teal Group.

"Given the endless delays and the original somewhat premature roll-out, Boeing needed to show that it had a real live performing aircraft on it's hands," Aboulafia said.

The plane, which Boeing has said will save airlines million of dollars in fuel and maintenance costs, has been hampered by a shortage of bolts, faulty design and a two-month strike at its factory.

Airlines like the concept of the mid-sized plane that can carry some 250 very long distances. They have ordered 840 of the aircraft, worth about $140 billion, since 2004, when work began on the plane.

But production has been delayed five times in the past three years, and the first flight has been postponed six times, stretching customers' patience.

Rival Airbus, a unit of Europe's EADS, has been attracting buyers for its competing A350 plane, which will also be made primarily from carbon-composite materials.

Exactly how much profit Boeing can expect to make from the plane is uncertain. Analysts have said the company has invested more than $10 billion in the project, and will have to give some sort of compensation to customers for late planes. How late the planes will be, and how they will perform will not be known until flight tests have been completed.

"It's a major step-off point to the ultimate goal which is certification and customer delivery. It's an important milestone but it's not the end goal," Clay Jones, chief executive of Rockwell Collins, told the Reuters Aerospace & Defence Summit in Washington.

Rockwell makes display systems, communications and surveillance systems and pilot controls systems for the 787.