Tag Archives: american airlines

American 777 On the Nose

Widebody jets coming into SEA are hard to predict.  If possible, all arriving traffic is sent to the outer runway to allow departures to proceed from the inner runway with little disruption.  However, if there is a lot of arriving traffic, the wake turbulence requirements for spacing behind a heavy jet can slow the arrivals flow.  In this case, sending the jets the inner runway is more efficient.  You never know what it will be until the plane is lined up on approach and you can see whether it is offset from the normal paths or not.

I wasn’t terribly bothered by this American Airlines 777-200ER when it came in as it is a daily arrival from London, and I have shot it on previous occasions.  However, since I was in a location almost on the centerline of its approach, I decided to go for more of a head on shot and then an underside shot.  If this was something I hadn’t shot before, I would be aiming to get the side of the plane in shot to show whatever it was but, in this case, no harm in playing around with different angles.

NEO Versus Not-NEO

For some reason I was thinking about the comparison between the neo and classic versions of the A320 family and it got me wondering whether I had any shots that would provide a good direct comparison between the old and new versions.  The answer I came up with was shots of American Airlines’ A321s departing LAX.  They provided the combination of reliable lighting and similar angles on the climb out.  I was able to put the two together in one shot.  Externally, the differences are there to be seen but, if you are not knowing what to look for, you probably wouldn’t tell them apart.  Given the significant performance increase the neo brings, it would be easy to miss.

Strangely The First AA A321neo Encounters

The launch of the 737 Max was heavily influenced by American Airlines agreeing to buy a bunch of A320neo family jets from Airbus.  American had inherited a bunch of Airbus aircraft from the combination with USAirways but buying the neos really caused Boeing to take note.  The order also included a bunch of the ceo versions of the jets and I have seen loads of them over the years.  However, for some reason, I had never shot an American neo until I got to LAX.

Los Angeles seems to be a popular destination for American’s neo fleet.  While I was there, I saw a load of them arriving and departing.  The larger engines are quite conspicuous on the neo although the A321neo seems better proportioned for that size of engine so they are less obvious than the smaller jets.  I think they do occasionally make it to Seattle but whether I shall catch one up here, I don’t know.

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!

 

The Max 737s Are On the Move

Boeing has been building and testing 737 Max jets throughout the grounding so having them flying is not a great surprise.  However, with the grounding order lifted by the FAA, things are moving into a higher gear.  United took delivery of a jet and American Airlines has indicated it will start service before the end of the year.  Two jets were up on the same day which leads me to think that they have already undergone the mod programs and are being tested prior to delivery to the airline.

Under the American Max

Production of 737 Max jets is underway again and that means some flight testing of new jets.  I was heading back from Boeing Field but stopped at the approach end to get a shot from the underside.  I almost didn’t get there in time so was not exactly where I wanted to be to take the shot but it still worked out reasonably well.  I do like a different angle every once in a while and underneath is certainly worth a go every once in a while.

Inlet Vortex on a Rainy Day

Boeing was supposed to be making the first flight of the fourth 777X one Saturday, so I headed up to Paine Field to see it.  The weather was not great with low clouds and rain and it was below minima for the flight, so we didn’t get to see the 777X.  However, an American Airlines 787 was doing a test flight and it took off in the damp conditions.

As they powered up the jet, the moisture on the surface of the runway got sucked up in the vortex that forms between the inlet and the ground at high power and low forward speed.  A dull day makes it easier to see this as well, so I was able to get a few shots of it.  The lack of flying that day was a disappointment but this meant the days wasn’t a total bust.

American 767s Have Gone

Another airline retiring another type.  This used to be an occasional topic on the blog but the massive reductions in airline service means I could probably almost pick one a day.  In this case it is American Airlines and the Boeing 767.  The 757s have also been grounded but they are not definitely retired yet so we’ll wait for a while.  Of course, by the time this post hits the page, that might have changed!

The 767-200 fleet went away a while back but I am going to include them here.  The 767-300s have been around until now.  I didn’t travel in them very much but have made the occasional trip.  I think I took one from Chicago to Manchester in the UK and definitely had a ride from SFO to JFK once.  There have probably been other times that I don’t now recall.  It has been quite a while since I was a regular with American.

All that aside, the fleet is now done.  Some may find a second life – possibly as freighters – but probably the majority will end up being parted out.  We might suddenly find 767 parts are not as in need as they were until recently but there is still a sizable fleet of freighters and there are still in production so maybe there is some value.

Busy American Terminals

It’s been a little while since my last trip to Dallas but I did come across some other shots from when I was coming home through DFW.  As one of the hubs for American Airlines, the majority of the gates seem to have American jets on them.  The variety of types is decreasing with the MD-80s in their last throws while I was there.  I like the longer shot you can sometimes get from the connector between the terminals which bunches up the jets.  When they are all one type it isn’t so interesting but a collection of different fins is good if you can get it comparing the size of the narrow bodies and the widebodies.

Two Special American 737s – At Last

American Airlines has painted a number of its jets in liveries of the airlines that went into it over the years.  It happens that, as I write this on a plane, I just saw an A320 in American West colors as we taxied out.  They painted up three 737s in special schemes and I had a poor record of seeing them.  Two of these, the TWA scheme and the Reno Air scheme, both showed up at DFW while I was there waiting for a flight home.  The TWA scheme landed just after I got there so I saw it while riding the inter-terminal shuttle.  I then had it taxi out past me a little while later.  Sadly it took off from the other side of the field.  The Reno jet followed later and it did take off from our side so I felt like I had finally checked out something that had evaded me for too long.