Tag Archives: 787

Surge of 787s

Nothing too special about this post.  I was out at Boeing Field for the flights of Sentimental Journey but the traffic to SEA was passing overhead.  Most traffic is domestic but you do get the international movements too.  In this case, I got three 787s in very short order.  They came from British Airways, JAL and ANA.  I figured they could have their own post so here you go.

Specials Coming to London

Shooting at an airport you don’t normally get to shoot at means you have the opportunity to shoot airlines that you wouldn’t see otherwise.  What can be even nicer is if you get a special livery on one of these jets.  (There is a small element in the back of your head that worries about not having shot the normal livery and that you still won’t have because of the special but that churlish thought needs to be suppressed!) Three of the jets coming in from overseas were in special finishes as was one of the locals.  British Airways had an A320neo in a paint finish that was sky blue.  I actually watched it depart too when waiting to board my flight home.

Kenya Airways flies their 787s in to London.  The jet that came in on this day had a graphic of rhinos on the rear fuselage.  Not a totally different livery but a nice addition.  Brussels Airlines flies their A320s in to Heathrow and the airframe I saw was in a Tintin scheme that covered the whole airframe.  It looked really good.  Royal Jordanian was the last of my specials.  Its 787 had a graphic advertising the city of Petra which covered the side of the jet.  All nice efforts by the respective airlines.

Air France Tries Everything At SEA

Airlines seem to be consolidating their fleets these days with less and less types showing up.  I am sure that this is true for Air France too but, recent experience at SEA feels like the opposite.  We seem to have been the destination for a lot of the Air France long haul fleet.  We have had 777s coming in here for a while.  I imagine that they will be the ones we won’t see much of again but you should never bet on that.  The 777-300ERs are likely to be around for a while, even if the -200ERs go away.

Then we have had the A330s and the A350s.  I like the look of the A350 so was pleased to see them bringing that on this route.  I had wrongly assumed that, with the A350 being deployed here, that was going to be a regular feature.  Instead, we have now got 787s coming in.  I was north of the airport when I got to shoot a 787-9 lining up for approach.  When I have looked more recently, that is the jet showing on the schedule.  Who knows what we will get next?  I am pretty certain it won’t be the A380!

Robbed Dreamliner

Dreamliner deliveries have been stalled for about a year now with a brief interlude of deliveries early last year.  They are stored all over the place including this American Airlines jet up at Paine Field.  I think it had a radome when it was built but, clearly someone needed one and the easiest one to hand was on this airframe. Now it sits awaiting a replacement and – hopefully – acceptance and delivery!

 

Competitor Dreamliners

I took this shot at Haneda Airport in Tokyo.  The 787 has sold well with the Japanese carriers – my trip to Tokyo was on a JAL 787-8 and ANA was the launch operator – and with these two airlines competing strongly for the Japanese market, it seemed slightly appropriate that they should both be in this single shot.

Zipair

There is some rationalization underway in the Japanese airline business at the moment.  JAL and ANA are both taking control over smaller operations as a result of the difficulties that COVID has placed upon them.  However, even before COVID reared its ugly head, JAL had created a new subsidiary.  This is called Zipair.  I recently read that it is due to start operations soon which surprised me because I thought I had seen its planes before.  It turns out I saw one of their 787s as it was parked up at Narita when the flight I was on was taxiing in after landing.  I guess that airframe hasn’t had much use yet.

Dreamliner In the Mist

During the winter, I shot a British Airways 787 as it approached landing at Seattle Tacoma International.  There was some low cloud base and it was just skirting the bottom of the clouds as it passed me by.  It was appearing and disappearing from view within the clouds and, even when clear, was pulling a bit of vapor along with it!  An all-white jet against a cloudy backdrop does not make for a contrasty shot but the elusive nature of the plane with such a background made the shots interesting to process.

Dreamliner Wings Moving to the Factory

I have shown a bunch of images of the Dreamlifter bringing in components to Paine Field for the production line including shots of the unloading of parts.  During a more recent visit, I happened to be there when they were moving a pair of wings from the storage facility to the production facility across the airfield.  They had escort vehicles to lead and follow up as they crossed the runway.  The wings look a lot less impressive in the travel jigs.  The completed 787 looks substantial but the wings alone don’t provide the same impact.

Damp Air Brings the Vortices Out at KPAE

Damp and cloudy days are not always ideal for aviation photography but they can provide some interesting options.  One weekend I was up at Everett when they were approaching from the south.  The jets broke out of the cloud at quite low level but there was some light from the side coming under the clouds.  The damp air meant that the jets were pulling some conspicuous vortices as they flared for landing.  They were a long way off but it was possible to get some shots of them.  The 747 produced vortices that were easier to see but the 787s didn’t do too badly either.

Running from the Hurricane

With visitors in town, I took them to the Boeing factory tour at Everett.  I know this might seem like I was doing this for my own benefit but I think they were happy to go and it helped to be doing something indoors on a rainy day.  When we got there, we arrived in time to see a bunch of jets landing.  There was a stream of them coming in it seemed and I was surprised to see that there were 787-10s coming in.  The Dash 10 is not built at Everett.  They are only assembled in Charleston so they wouldn’t normally be at Everett.  Some Hainan 787-9s had also made the trip.

It turns out that they were evacuations from the impending hurricane.  South Carolina was in the path of a major hurricane, Florence, heading towards the southeast coast of the US.  Apparently, Boeing had decided to get the jets that were airworthy out of there to minimize the risk of damage.  I suspect they would move more if they could but this was the best that they could do.  The thing I found interesting was that they brought the jets all the way across the country and that there wasn’t somewhere closer that they could have as a refuge.  Perhaps it is easier logistically to manage but it is a long flight to make.