Tag Archives: Boeing

American 767s Have Gone

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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.

And Now It Is Qantas…

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I posted here about KLM retiring their 747s early as a result of the COVID-19 related pummeling that the airlines have taken.  It wasn’t long before another airline made the same announcement – this time it was Qantas.  Qantas has operated the 747s since the beginning and it is quite a shame to see that they are no more.  Here are some of my Qantas 747s from over the years.  I should note that there is a rumor that they may not be gone for good and could return.  That would be great but I suspect it will not be the case given that they didn’t have long left anyway and things are going to be rough for a while for the airlines in all probability.

Air to Air With United Jets – Or Is It?

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When putting together some images for a group online that I am involved with, a dug out a couple of shots of jets departing O’Hare I shot years back.  When coming off 22L, some of the jets make an early turn to the south and you can get a view of them that is either quite level with the wing line or slightly above.  When shooting them, they are climbing so it is obvious what you were shooting.  However, as I looked at these shots, it occurred to me that they looked a lot like an air to air position except the angles were wrong because of the climb.  Since I had shot quite tightly, re-cropping the shot required some Photoshop work.

Taking the image out of Lightroom and in to Photoshop, I selected the crop tool and rotated the image to be the sort of angle that an air to air shot might be.  Doing this crops off the nose and tail of the jet.  However, one feature of the crop tool in Photoshop is that, if you then drag the edges of the tool back out, you can expand the canvas size.  You now have the whole plane in shot but have added some white space in each corner where no image previously existed.

It is a simple task to then use Content Aware Fill to add sky back in to these areas.  The result is a shot that looks almost as if you had been flying in formation at altitude.  Would you have spotted it?  Having done it with an A320, I then had a go with a 757.  The light angle makes it look a bit like we are flying along towards a setting sun.  I was rather pleased with the trick.

A Saudi F-15SA in the PNW

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A Boeing F-15SA development airframe has been in the PNW.  The F-15SA is a development of the Strike Eagle family specifically for the Royal Saudi Air Force.  They are buying new jets as well as updating the F-15S jets they bought years ago.  Production jets have been delivered for a while now but testing activities continue.  I had heard that a jet was at Boeing Field for a while and had even seen the tails parked on the ramp as I drove by but I hadn’t seen it moving.

Military jets don’t usually show up on the mainstream flight tracking apps (but this one had when it traveled cross country) so I didn’t know it was airborne.  However, I heard it call up on approach so stopped what I was doing and grabbed the camera.  Sure enough, it came zipping down the approach.  A few quick shots and then it was down.  Apparently I was rather lucky.  A couple of days later it headed back across country.

Another Star Wars Jet – At Last

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When a new Star Wars movie is released, it seems to be the thing to arrange a tie in with an airline and have them paint jets in special Star Wars themed liveries.  ANA was a part of this and I have shot a variety of their special paint scheme jets which you can see here and here.  For the most recent movie, The Rise of Skywalker, United got in on the game and painted a 737 in a black livery with special marking including one side with a blue lightsaber and one with a red.  I had not seen the jet before.  It has been to SeaTac a few times but never when I could get there (or when it was daylight).  Finally it showed up one evening when the weather was great so nice light.  Only one side to see of course but here it is!

The Second Batch of Indian P-8s Commences

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This P-8 is the first jet for a second batch ordered by the Indian government.  I have to admit that I didn’t know that they had ordered more jets.  I could tell it was different because the earlier jets had ARK written on the fin and this one has DAB.  Maybe that is a squadron thing?  The P-8I for the Indians has a number of changes from the USN standard of jet.  It has a different radar mounted on the fuselage and also includes a MAD which was not part of the USN spec.  Here are some shots of the two jets to show the differences between them.

Finally the Boeing T-38s Are In the Sun

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I mentioned the arrival of some USAF T-38s in this post.  They weren’t alone, though.  Boeing had both of their T-38 chase jets out on missions and they had to come back at some point.  The day had lovely weather so I was going to wait around and get on with some work to see when they showed up.  The jets have similar paint schemes but are slightly different in detail.  I had shot one of them in nice conditions once so was keen to do better.  I got both of them as they returned so finally felt like I had some success.

I wonder how long they will last.  Since Boeing has won the contest to replace the T-38 in USAF service, I wonder whether the early T-7 jets they built will find their way to Boeing Field at some point to support flight test activities.  They will probably not be a match for production jets so would be of less use for in service test activities.  We shall see.  The T-33s are still around so the T-38s may have years ahead of them.

Farewell KLM 747s

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The massive reductions in air service as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has put airlines in a tough spot.  One of the first things they have done is ground a significant portion of their fleets.  For some airlines with types that were due to go out of service before too long anyway, this just accelerated the plans.  The KLM 747s were due to last until 2021 but they have been grounded and are not expected to return.  As I have done with the end of 747 operations for other airlines in the past, this is a small tribute to the KLM 747 fleet.  An interesting livery amongst a world of white jets.

GOL 737

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The nice thing about living near an airliner factory is seeing airline color schemes that you would never normally be even close to.  The 737 line has recently been idled but they are still finishing off some testing of jets and this GOL Max shot an approach at Paine Field one weekend while I was there.  Quite an attractive livery I think.

Bouncing Growlers

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The sun was forecast, I had some time to spare and there was even suggestion of southerly winds so I took a day off and headed to Whidbey Island.  Coupeville was planned for some FCLP training for the Growlers from Ault Field so I went up to see what I could see.  With winter light, the sun is way to the south.  It cross the centerline of the runway by late morning and, unfortunately, the first flight to arrive came after this time.  They only had one meatball on the field and it was set up at the south end.  The wind was southerly but not strong so they clearly decided a small tailwind was easier than dragging the lights to the other end and aligning them.  Crap!

I spent some time on the sunny side which is far from the touchdown zone.  I shot some stills and some video.  The jets only get close when they are well airborne but it was possible to get a few shots that were okay.  When they had finished the practice you knew it was the case because the jets cleaned up and powered away.  I headed down to the water to have some lunch.

It wasn’t long before I heard the sound of jets again.  I saw a couple of them turning over the bay and descending to the field so headed back up.  While the light was on the wrong side, I figured I would just try something new since the alternative was just more of what I already had shot.  It even was the same jets as the earlier session.  I shot some backlit landings near the touchdown zone (and I was not alone – plenty of people stopped their cars to watch).  With a bunch of shots and video done, I figured it was time to head home.