Tag Archives: all nippon Airways

After Dark with ANA

Over the many posts on this blog, there have been a few that involve hoping for great light at the end of the day.  Some have been successful and others have not.  This is one of the latter.  An All Nippon Airways 787 was out on test from Paine Field.  It was due back shortly before sunset so the potential was there for some lovely light.  Unfortunately, the potential was also there for being slightly delayed and arrived after the sun had gone down.  This is exactly what happened.  I wasn’t going home, at this point, though.  Instead, I shot it in shady twilight conditions.  Assuming Boeing sorts out its issues, it won’t be long before the 787s are all gone so you have to enjoy the opportunity while it remains.

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.

Completing the ANA Star Wars Set

ANA painted three jets in special schemes in association with Star Wars.  They have an R2-D2 scheme on a 787-9 and a BB-8 scheme on a 777-300ER and I have shot both of them in the US.  They have appeared on the blog here and here.  The third jet was a C-3PO scheme that was on a jet that was used in the Asia regional flights so I did not anticipate seeing it.  However, it showed up at Haneda while I was there.  Consequently, I got to shoot it at last.  Sadly, it departed off the other runway so I only got a distant backlit shot.

There was another 767 that also showed up with some Star Wars markings on it.  It wasn’t a complex scheme like the first three but it was a Star Wars scheme.  I guess I must have got all of them by now unless anyone knows of another one that is out there?