My Renton visit also allowed me to have a look around the production aircraft out on the flight line or in the factory areas. The shortage of engines has been a concern which I wrote about last year and which was supposed to be fixed by the year end. Judging by how many of these planes are still carrying ballast rather than engines, I guess things are still a bit behind schedule. Then again, with what has happened since, maybe the cost of accepting some engines is not something Boeing wants…
The 737 flight tests involve a departure from Renton and arrival at Boeing Field from which all further flying takes place. However, on some flights, approaches are made to Paine Field. One COPA 737 Max made such an approach while I was there. I was at the departure end of the field and, while sometimes they will land and back taxi before taking off again, this time it was a go around. Consequently, they were quite high by the time they passed me. Still worthy of a few shots, though.
If you drive passed Boeing Field at the moment, there are a few 737s parked across the street in the employee parking lot. One is a development Max 7 but the others a new jets awaiting delivery. They are marked up for Jet Airways. Apparently, the airline has cash issues and that might be the reason that delivery has not been taken on these jets.
I may well have seen one of them during its test flying activities. This jet was still unpainted when it made a stop at Everett. You often get jets passing through Everett en route back to BFI but this one was actually making a stop. I assume they completed the test flying and painting of the airframe in the hope that the financing would come to fruition. Apparently, that has not yet happened. Either Jet will come up with the money or these aircraft will be reconfigured for an alternate customer.
I have been gathering various shots of Boeing Dreamlifters over recent months and so figured I would just combine a bunch of them into a single post. No overriding theme here and some conditions were way nice than others. It is just a selection of shots of one of the more unusual looking aircraft around. Hopefully, one day, I shall get to shoot the Airbus Belugas too.
I had a long layover at Salt Lake City when connecting on a Delta flight. The sun was out and the mountains in the background were covered in snow so it made for a rather pretty backdrop for the airport operations. It was a bit Delta-centric given that they hub at the airport and we were in one of their terminals but it did make for some nice light and scenery for aviation shots.
A new airliner, fresh from the paint shop, looks splendidly clean. When you have an interesting paint color, things are better still. This Korean Air 777-300ER was making its first flight from Paine Field when I shot it. It looked great in nice light. When delivered to the customer, it will be pristine. Then, regular service will result in it looking a little bit more worn and grubby depending on how much time is available to clean it up. Airbridge dirt marks and others scuffs or leaking fluids will seek to muck it up a bit.
I’m not sure why but recently the 747 fin in Future of Flight at Everett made it to be a popular photo on Airliners Net. The fin sits inside the museum section and it was painted as a 747-8 fin, even though it actually came from a British Airways 747-100. The picture had it with the -8 paint finish. I have a similar shot but the fin has recently been repainted in a blue finish. Not sure what the purpose was but, since Boeing have taken over Future of Flight, they must have had a reason. If anyone knows why, let me know in the comments.
Finally, the first Boeing KC-46 Pegasus tankers were delivered to the USAF. Not one but two tankers were delivered in the ceremony, a nice effort at a joke by Boeing having left everyone thinking it would only be one. Then again, when you have that many of them sitting around, I guess it should have been even more! The ceremony took place on one day and the delivery was the following morning.
The jets left from Paine Field just after sunrise. That is sunrise if you don’t have clouds on the horizon. The sun had barely squeaked above those when the two jets took off as Medusa 1 and 2. They were preceded by a McConnell AFB KC-135R – the aircraft that they will be replacing. It got airborne in very limited light and headed for Kansas. Then the two new jets lined up in turn and departed. No flybys or wing waggles. Just gear up, switch to departure frequency and off into the steadily brightening sky. Avoid the traffic inbound to SeaTac and off you go. Lots more should be following soon while efforts continue to fix the issues with the camera system and the underwing hose and drogue pods.
This is just a gratuitous Boeing 747 post. The jets are fast disappearing from service with the major airlines but British Airways (those of you that call them British Air just stop!) has a substantial number of them left and they are due to stay around for a few more years. This one was arriving at SFO in 2018. It came into view across Coyote Point and headed down the approach in nice winter light. There will come a time when they are gone so appreciate it now. I have flown on more of them than I can recall so have plenty of happy memories of traveling on them.
The only civilian 767s being built at the moment are for FedEx. I posted one of them on test at Paine Field in this post. I caught another one recently. I got the departure early on as it disappeared into the clouds that were pretty low. The return later had slightly better light. The approach was terminated with a go-around resulting in some vortices streaming from the wing as they climbed out. Dark skies make for an interesting background!
