Another Look at the BOAC 747 With the Reds

Leave a Reply

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.

The Iconic Main Terminal Building at IAD

Leave a Reply

First thing is to apologise for an issue with an image in here. How about that for a compelling way to start a post. However, it was impossible to avoid reflections in some of the shots I took here and, unfortunately, the reflection removal tool in Lightroom continues to underperform in my experience. I do think they did something to make it worse because my initial experience was good. Anyway, for some of these I was shooting through two panes of glass that had a few metres between them, which meant I couldn’t avoid reflections.

Our trip to the US for a family event took us through Dulles airport. The iconic terminal at Dulles now sits at the heart of a bunch of terminal buildings which are far less interesting architecturally. However, the swooping shape is still in use and that is where we checked in. Inside the roofline is equally impressive. When at our departure gate, we had a good view back across and this is where the reflections have been unavoidable. I first saw this airport in 1993, and it still catches my eye when I see it now.

BA 787-10 Climb Out

Leave a Reply

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.

Not the Bikes You Might Have Expected

Leave a Reply

The Festival of Speed had a bunch of motorbikes but, as I walked through the grounds, I came across some other bikes. A combination of trials bikes and BMX bikes were being put through their paces by some pretty capable riders. I was most impressed by the aerial manoeuvres that they were achieving and grabbed a bunch of shots of them flying through the air. Here is a selection of those shots.

Storm Shadow

Leave a Reply

The Storm Shadow is a long-range strike missile that was jointly developed by the UK and France and is in service with the RAF. An example is on display at the RAF museum in Hendon. When I first graduated, there was a predecessor programme to this called REVISE. The Research Vehicle into Inflight Submunition Ejection was looking at a similar airframe but that would dispense munition rather than have a large warhead like Storm Shadow. It was dropped from Tornado BT6 over the West Freugh range where, unfortunately, the parachute recovery system failed, and it hit the water at some speed.

When I saw it afterwards, it was rather mangled. Others had been built but the programme was scrubbed. REVISE Plus was supposed to follow it and I ran a wind tunnel test programme to understand the handling impact of the missiles on Tornado. It was a really fun thing to manage when you were a young aerodynamicist. I don’t know whether any of that data was used when Storm Shadow came along but I doubt it. Still, it does feel like a connection of some sort to me.

Finding a Sprite in the Strangest Places

Leave a Reply

The Austin Healey Sprite is an old British sports car which you don’t often see around. One place I was definitely not expecting to come across one was Warrenton in Virginia. Sure, Northern Virginia is near to the DC metro area so probably has a fair few people that might be interested in an old car like this and have the cash to restore one, but Warrenton is some way out. But there it was as we went to have some lunch. It looked in great condition.

Cathay’s Special

Leave a Reply

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.

Cruising Along the North Kent Coast

Leave a Reply

I posted about the charity ride I did in September. The first day took us along the north Kent coast and a healthy tailwind pushed us along nicely. We went through some places that I have been to and plenty that I haven’t. Margate was last visited when I was in college! I had never been to Broadstairs (that I know of). I grabbed a few pictures of the coastline, castles and beaches so here are some of the places we saw along the way. The end of this day included a long climb up to the top of St Margarets with a brutal headwind, so it wasn’t all easy (and my rear tyre was deflating during that climb too!)

Storms Over Northern France

Leave a Reply

Our flight back to the UK from DC arrived early in the morning. I was sitting by the window and looking at the clouds. Nancy looked over and asked if they were storm clouds since they had a similar shape. Initially I thought they were too small, but the shape was right. It turns out, she was spot on. They were storm clouds and they were large – just a long way away. In fact, they were over northern France. As soon as we landed, I looked at the weather radar, and the image below shows just what the residents of that area were experiencing. Amazing to realise just how far you can see when flying.

Screenshot