Tag Archives: jet

These Engines Look Bigger Than the Fuselage

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The Embraer sales team have been doing quite well with the E2 versions of their jets. They are selling well and showing up with lots of operators. I have seen them passing our house as KLM brings them to Southampton now and there were a few at Heathrow when I was there a short while back. The head on shots I got really emphasise the unusual proportions of the E2. The most noticeable change from the E1 was the addition of the Pratt geared turbofans. These have a far larger bypass ratio and the diameter of the engines compared to the narrow fuselage of the original airframe is a little disproportionate in my view. What do you think?

The Smithsonian’s Blackbird

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As you enter the NASM building at Dulles, you are greeted by an SR-71 Blackbird. It is in the centre of the building facing the entrance and the elevated position of the entrance gives you a view down on it. It was in the same place on my previous visit so, on this trip, I didn’t give it as much attention as I might otherwise do. So many things to see so I did rather skip by. However, I wasn’t going to fail to photograph it at all!

Unusual German WWII Planes

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The Steve Udvar-Hazy Center has aircraft from across the world and eras but does have some very unusual Second World War aircraft. The US acquired a variety of types at the end of the war from the German programmes which were taken home to evaluate. Some of these ended up in the hands of the Smithsonian when they were no longer needed. Two interesting examples are now on display at Dulles. These include a jet powered bomber and a puss-pull fighter.

The Arado AR234 Blitz is a conventional looking plane if you set aside the engine pods under the wings. To a modern eye, it looks very tame, but I imagine it was something special at the time. Next to it is the Dornier DO335 Pfeil – a push-pull configuration piston engined fighter. This was not a unique design idea for Germany. The US had a similar concept – an example of which I saw in Kalamazoo. So much innovative aerospace concepts were developed in the heat of war and these two are very rare examples of what was underway at that time.

Air Peace Almost Catches Me Out

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During my visit to Heathrow for the Cathay special, I was looking at the list of inbound types to see if there was anything else that would be of interest. An Air Peace 777 was listed but it didn’t show its departure time so I figured that it might have been cancelled. Consequently, I wasn’t expecting it to show up. Consequently, when I saw it appear on approach using FR24, I was delighted and rather surprised. Here is is – another new operator to see in person.

Another Look at the BOAC 747 With the Reds

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This is an old shot from 2019. I came over to the UK for a visit that included a trip to RIAT. As part of the display, a British Airways 747-400 painted in the retro BOAC markings did a couple of flybys with the Red Arrows on one of the weekend days. A few weeks before, this 747 had come into Seattle and I got a lovely evening shot of it in front of Mt Rainier.

A year later and the onset of the pandemic had resulted in BA retiring their entire fleet of 747s. This wasn’t the last time I photographed one of their jets, but it was probably one of the more impressive ones. In one of the shots, you can see Red 10 flying offset from the formation – presumably acting as whipper in and providing a photo platform. I came across these shots recently and figured, since these hadn’t been on the blog before, they were worth a look again.

BA 787-10 Climb Out

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Working back through some old images, I came across a couple of shots of a British Airways 787-10 Dreamliner as it was climbing out of Heathrow. The departure routing includes a turn out to the south and the angles made for an interesting view of the upper sides of the plane. Not sure which of these two shots I prefer (setting aside the softness from heat haze), so I have included both. You decide if you have a preference.

Cathay’s Special

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For its 80th anniversary, Cathay Pacific painted one of its A350-900s in a retro livery. It makes you feel a touch old when you remember their whole fleet having been painted in these colours but then again, I am a touch old! This plane has been in to Heathrow on a number of occasions but combinations of time of arrival, weather and my availability have meant I have never seen it until recently. It was due on on a Saturday late in the afternoon. It was not going to be too close to sunset so, any delays should not be an issue.

The forecast was for overcast but, during the majority of the day, it was really sunny. I was hoping that this would stay but, unfortunately, the forecast was not wrong. I was watching the sun descend behind a cloud layer hoping that it might pop out below in time for the arrival. Sadly, this didn’t occur, but the lighting was not too bad, and I am pretty happy with the shots that I got. It really is a nice livery. The only discrepancy from the original is the the Union Flag is gone since Hong Kong is now back under Chinese control.

Busy Ramp at Brize

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I was at Brize Norton earlier this year. I had a brief chance to look at the ramp both as we taxied out and as we returned. A combination of A400Ms and Voyagers were about with some holding to depart as we came back and others awaiting their next mission. Here are a few shots of the residents.

Condensation Patterns on the A380

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The glossy paint finishes on airliners tend to make the fuselages look uniform to the naked eye – particularly when at a distance. Of course, when you get closer – particularly on an aluminium fuselage – you can see the joints and reinforcements that go into the detailed design. A British Airways A380 was on one of the gates at Heathrow early one morning as we taxied by. I assume it had been there for a while because there was a lot of condensation on the skin from morning dew. This served to highlight the different parts of the structure including where the skin was thicker and were there was an overlap of skin layers. I thought it was interesting to see how it made a normally uniform fuselage look so much more complex.