Tag Archives: star wars

Alaska’s New Star Wars Jet

Airline sponsorship deals around the Star Wars franchise are a big deal these days.  I have shot a variety of them over time.  The United Rise of Skywalker jet recently got repainted back in to standard United colors.  Alaska Airlines has signed a new deal associated with the Disney park attraction and they unveiled the jet after it had been painted in Spokane.  I missed its initial visits and then got it one weekend but only in some pretty dingy conditions.

Then I got a second chance at both the arrival and departure one morning when the weather was far more favorable.  The airframe is mainly black with a variety of graphics across it.  There is a graphic of a porg in a location that is designed to look like a front window.  They are also on the winglets.  I find that creature annoying so don’t have much interest.  However, the addition of Tie Fighters and the Millennium Falcon are better from my perspective.  I guess that shows my age.

Another Star Wars Jet – At Last

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!

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?

BB-8 to Add to the ANA Star Wars Collection

Back when we lived in California, I saw the Star Wars 787 from All Nippon come in to San Jose.  That is the topic of this blog post.  There are a couple of other Star Wars planes that ANA painted up.  One is a 767 and it tends to fly around Asia so I doubt I will get a chance to see it any time soon.  The other was a 777-330ER painted up like BB-8.  I few of my friends have seen it come in to Chicago but I had not seen it up close.  They didn’t operate in to where I was.  (I had shot it overflying me at high altitude once though.)

Then I caught a break.  I didn’t realize this at the time but it was operating to Los Angeles the day I was shooting over the airport.  I knew an ANA 777 was on its way in but I had not paid too much attention to which aircraft it was.  As I was hanging over the airport, I picked the jet out of the murky skies as it came down the approach and, as it got closer, I realized which jet it was.  I have to admit, I was rather surprised and a bit excited when I saw it.

San Jose for R2-D2 Boeing 787

C59F7133.jpgThe arrival of a new Star Wars movie is not really a secret. There are more promotional efforts associated with the film by businesses of all types than I can remember for any other release. All Nippon got in on the game quite early and announced that a number of their jets would be carrying Star Wars markings. The first to break cover was a 787-9 with markings to represent R2-D2. My friend Hayman and I made it to San Jose a while back to catch it arriving.

C59F6660.jpgThe story of finding it made it to a blog post for GAR which is here. Therefore, I won’t repeat the whole story of how I nearly missed the arrival. If you want to see that, click on the link and you can read the whole thing. After the arrival, we hung around and then headed to the departure end of the field to be ready for its return journey to Tokyo. It is a pretty cool scheme that they have implemented. I will now have to keep an eye out for the other two that they are doing.

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