The first 787 might be painted blue, but Boeing's trying to get us all to see it as green.

With the increasing international emphasis on global warming and reducing greenhouse gases, Boeing has shifted its marketing message about the 787. Where it used to emphasize how much money airlines would save flying the more efficient jet, the company now is talking about its environmentally friendly attributes: lower pollution and less noise. That's important at a time when even Prince Charles has cut back on his flying to reduce his carbon footprint.

The composite-hulled plane ? which is set to make its first flight later this month ? will be the Toyota Prius of the skies, according to Jeff Hawk, Boeing's vice president of certification, government relations and the environment.

In briefings he's been giving reporters, Hawk says the 787 will burn a third less fuel per passenger per mile than a typical sport utility vehicle on the highway and somewhat less than a four-door sedan.

The numbers show it will be "very comparable" to a single person riding in a hybrid automobile, in terms of fuel burn per passenger per mile, he says.

And the plane's emission of nitrogen oxide ? one of the basic components of smog ? will be 24 percent lower than current international standards.

The noise of a 787 at takeoff and landing will be no more than the noise of passing car traffic.

Boeing this spring announced a partnership with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways to study the use of biofuels for jets.

And Hawk says Boeing is working with other companies to discover ways to recycle the 787's composite frame, breaking down the resins and fibers so they can be used again in everything from golf clubs to bridge beams.

Maybe they should have called it the Green Liner.

Not everyone is convinced. London-based aerospace analyst Doug McVitie told Forbes this summer that Boeing's environmental claims are "90 percent spin and 10 percent nonsense," and whatever improvements the plane can boast are the result of work by engine builders Rolls-Royce and General Electric, not Boeing.

However, Boeing CEO Jim McNerney and his team have made believers of customers worldwide.

"It's the best plane, the new generation plane. It's lighter, it's quieter," says Ralph Nakash, the owner of Akira Airlines in Israel, who was one of the guests at Boeing's 787 rollout in July. "This one, I knew right away that this was the future."