Boeing Co. will end a 28-year absence from the flying display at the Farnborough International Air Show next month, showcasing the 787 Dreamliner in a push to present the jet in a fresh light after three and a half years of delays.

In years past, Boeing top executives have dismissed the flying display as an unnecessary risk and opted to show planes on the ground to commercial customers and the public.

Boeing test pilots will fly a newly built Dreamliner destined for Qatar Airways, according to people familiar with the plan.

The jet's pilots have been secretly practicing the flying routine on a 787 test aircraft over eastern Washington state to avoid the scores of Boeing watchers who track the every movement of the jets built by the company, they add.

A Boeing spokesman said the company's plans for the Farnborough Air Show will be announced soon.

Farnborough Air Show organizers declined to confirm the jet's participation in the flying display, while Qatar Airways was unavailable to comment.

Boeing's return to flying at the show also marks a push by Qatar Airways to promote its first 787 service, which is expected to connect Doha with London Heathrow this summer. The Chicago-based jet maker also recently completed a multicity world tour with its 787 jet, which entered service in October with Japan's All Nippon Airways Co.

Aircraft makers use the annual summer air shows -- which alternate between Paris and Farnborough, outside of London -- to show off the capabilities of its newest aircraft. The 2010 Farnborough show featured US$47 billion in announced orders and the 2012 show comes as the landscape for the European economy remains weighed down by the crisis in the euro zone.

While Boeing brought its 787 to the annual summer air shows in 2010 and 2011, this year will feature a full production model for the first time, with a Qatar Airways-appointed interior.

Rival jet maker Airbus's aerial display is a hallmark of the shows and in the past has demonstrated software intended to prevent the pilot from losing control. This allows Airbus's double-deck A380 -- the world's largest passenger jet, which will attend the 2012 show -- to fly extremely slowly and bank steeply in the skies over the show. Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, is a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co.

Boeing's 787, which is the first commercial jetliner to be made from a majority of carbon fiber composites, offers similar safety protections, but unlike the A380, pilots can override them.

A Boeing commercial jet last participated in the flying display in 1984, when it debuted a larger version of the 737 with new engines.

That same show also saw the crash of a small cargo plane while demonstrating its ability to dive steeply and land in a short area on the runway. Neither of the two pilots was injured in the crash, but the aircraft was destroyed when it hit the runway. Airbus suffered its own crash in 1988 when a jet on a demonstration flight flew too low and too slow at a small air show in Mulhouse, France, causing it to crash in a nearby forest and killing three of the 136 people aboard.

The decision also comes on the heels of recent high-profile demonstration accidents, including the May crash of a Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co. Superjet 100 in Indonesia that killed all 45 passengers aboard. A cause of that accident has yet to be determined.

"There is more scrutiny than in years in the past," says John Cudahy, president of the International Council of Air Shows, who says display pilots of aircraft large and small choreograph aerial routines to the second to maximize safety and the performance of the aircraft.

Boeing is no stranger to flamboyant air displays. Its prototype "Dash 80," the forerunner of the 707, was rolled 360 degrees during a demonstration in 1955 for airline executives watching on the ground. The infamous -- and unapproved -- maneuver by test pilot Alvin "Tex" Johnson left top executives fuming.

Capt. Randy Neville, Boeing's 787 program chief, is understood to be in command for the aerial display and is no stranger to high-octane flying. Mr. Neville was a test pilot for the development of the U.S. Air Force's ultra-agile F-22 Raptor.