Category Archives: aircraft

United 787-10 Arrival at Paine Field

The 787-10 has a center section that is too long to fit in the Dreamlifter. This means that they can only be assembled at the North Charleston plant. The conspiracy theorists amongst us may think this was a deliberate part of the plan to focus production there and close the Everett line but, whether that is true or not, Everett is now only addressing issues with airframes already built and is not building any new 787s. However, some continue to come here from the east coast for rectification work prior to delivery. That means we get some 787-10s showing up and one of them was for United. I hadn’t planned on it but was there for something else and got this as a bonus.

C-40 Follows Out The C-32

Leave a Reply

A while back I posted about the visit of a C-32 to Boeing Field in support of the visit of the Vice President. It wasn’t the only aircraft to be there, though. The USAF also had a C-40 that was providing support. The motorcade delivered everyone to the aircraft but the C-32 departed swiftly while the C-40 was in less of a hurry. I imagine that they were sweeping up the stragglers before heading off. Needless to say, I waited around for them to go. They didn’t get quite the same priority as the C-32 but taxied back and took off – presumably heading back to the east coast.

How Many 747 Operators Have I Shot?

Leave a Reply

The delivery of the last production 747 got me digging out a lot of older shots of operators long gone or unusual ones that I had come across. This then triggered me looking through my collection of 747 shots to see just how many operators I had got images of. There are others I have seen but didn’t photograph in my younger days like Continental but, once I added them all up, I was surprised to see that, including some government jets and some testbeds and counting freight operations separately from passenger for some airlines, I have over 70 operators that I have shot over the years. I was rather surprised about that.

I am not going to include a shot of all of them. That would make for a very long post and I doubt too many people would get to the bottom. Instead, I shall just provide a selection of some of the more unusual ones. The full list is as follows:

British Airways, Air Canada, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic, JAL, Asiana Cargo, Air Atlanta, Lufthansa, United, Pan Am, JAL Cargo, South African Airways, Qantas, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Singapore Airlines Cargo, Polar Air Cargo, Air New Zealand, KLM, EVA Air, Kalitta Air, Tradewinds, NCA, PIA, Thai, Saudia, Air France, Northwest, Air China, Air China Cargo, UPS, China Airlines Cargo, Southern Air, Korean Air Cargo, Cargo 360, Northwest Cargo, Focus Air, Malaysia, Air Pacific Fiji, Air India, China Cargo, NASA, Delta, Southern Air, Great Wall Airlines, Yangtze River Express, Atlas Air, Evergreen, Asiana, Cargolux, British Airways World Cargo, China Southern Cargo, Rolls Royce, Centurion Cargo, State of Kuwait, Japan, TWA, Global Supertanker, Sands, Qatar Amiri Flight, Boeing, Qatar Cargo, UAE, Wamos, Virgin Orbit, SF Airlines, Cargo Logic Air, Cathay Pacific Cargo, Pratt and Whitney, Western Global

What A Difference A Few Minutes Makes

1 Reply

Paine Field is getting rather full of spare 777X airframes. They are getting stored in all sorts of locations and a recent spot for them is alongside the main assembly building at the north end of the field. I was using the long lens and so, rather than change lenses, I shot a few images to make a pano. It was a little dull but more of a record shot. A few minutes passed by the the clouds behind me had moved on and the light on the airframes had improved significantly. I reshot the scene before it changed again. Looking at the two shots, it is hard to believe that they were only a few minutes apart. What an impact a change in lighting can bring to a shot.

This Is Not What You Expect To Find in Washington

Leave a Reply

I was doing a favor for a friend from the Midwest a little while back that involved visiting someone north of Seattle who owned a jet that the friend was interested in researching. The documentation was the main reason for the visit, but we also took a trip to his hangar to see the jet. While we were there, he showed me another jet that he has. If you go to a random hangar in Washington, are you expecting to find a pristine MiG-23? He had told me he had it so it wasn’t a surprise at that point, but it was in excellent condition. It hasn’t been re-assembled since it arrived, so the wings are off and the engine is out. However, it was freshly overhauled before he took possession, and the engine has zero time since overhaul too.

Tucked alongside it in the hangar are the various parts that are removed. I don’t know the status of any of the weaponry, but I am told it has no hindrance to being made airworthy again. He has no interest in doing that and I don’t think he has any plans to dispose of it so it may sit there for a while yet. MiG-23s are impressive jets when airborne and I would love to see this one fly again. The engine is huge and the only time I saw one fly a display at RIAT many years ago, the plume of the afterburner made quite the impression. Maybe one day…

MD-10s Quietly Bow Out

Leave a Reply

FedEx acquired a large fleet of DC-10 freighters over the years and, more recently, put them through an upgrade program to make the cockpits common with their MD-11Fs. They were renamed the MD-10s. However, they were old jets and their time was coming due. New jets have been added at a good rate with FedEx taking 767-300Fs new off the line at Everett. With a downturn in business for FedEx, the fleet needed a trim and the MD-10s were the ones to go. Here are a few that I have shot over the years. They certainly provided good service.

Many Magisters

Leave a Reply

After checking out the graveyard for Gulfstreams at California City, I headed over to the main airport building. The ramp around the parking area had a bunch of Magisters parked up. A variety of colors but all of them in great condition. Some had covers fitted but, as I walked around the corner, I saw more parked out on the main ramp. The Magister is a neat little jet and one that used to be a regular at air shows when I was a kid. It was fun seeing so many of them together. If only one would fly. Well…

SOFIA On The Ground

Leave a Reply

The aerial display by the SOFIA was a high point of the Antelope Valley Air Show 2022 at Edwards AFB. When it finished, it landed and taxied in to it parking location. I was at that end of the ramp so was able to watch it come in and position prior to being maneuvered into its final position. Being that close to a 747 is always pretty impressive since even the SPs are large jets. Everyone was crowding to see it come in and it was drawing attention away from some of the flying display!

Firefighting Chinook – Just Not Now

Leave a Reply

We had a few helicopters show up in the region during the firefighting season. One was at Arlington and that was a Boeing Chinook owned by Billings Flying Service. Based in Billings MT, they provide a variety of aviation services including this helicopter for firefighting duties. It was parked on the ramp at Arlington and had a logo on the airframe to show its home base as well as a text logo on the fuselage near one of the navigation lights that referenced the Police song, Roxanne.

I would love to have seen it fly but the weekend when I was up there, it was just parked and work really gets in the way of having fun with aviation on weekdays. The paint scheme was really cool and it was fitted with an internal water system along with a snorkel for picking up water when needed. I would love to see this in action but that hasn’t happened yet and there is something very unfortunate about getting to see firefighting operations underway since it is a sign that bad things are happening!

This Is Not Your Standard Dornier

Leave a Reply

I have subscribed to Flight International for a very long time. I used to have it ordered with my local newsagent in Cowes when I was in high school, I got it ordered by Smiths in Kensington High Street when I was a student and, when I had a job after graduation, I finally got a proper subscription set up. That has continued ever since but, these days, Flight has become a digital only subscription for me. Still, I have continued it all these years despite having left the industry long ago. It does provide me with information on unusual test programs and that includes the Lockheed Martin X-55 Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA).

This was a demonstrator program for a new composite fuselage construction. The baseline aircraft was a Dornier 328Jet but it had its fuselage replaced by a composite one that LM built using advanced techniques and with a far shorter lead time. As a demonstrator, things did not go quite as smoothly as they might have but that is why you do programs such as this. It was never intended to be a production jet. It was to show what could be done with the technology if required. The jet was flown for a number of tests but I think building it was the bigger part of the program.

Once testing was complete, the airframe became part of the collection at the Joe Davies Airpark in Palmdale. When I saw it was there, I was very interested to see it. I suspect, for a lot of the visitors to the Airpark, it is one of the less interesting aircraft on display. The signs explain what it is all about but that is probably of little interest to many visitors. For a geek like me, though, it was probably one of the most interesting aircraft in the collection. Sure, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is special but there are two of those. This aircraft is unique. Having read about it long ago, seeing it in person is special. (If I ever get to see the Boeing 360 helicopter demonstrator, this will be the same thing.)