Boeing developed the BBJ in partnership with GE if memory serves and I think they took the earliest examples to be built. A modified 737 airframe, the BBJ is a big jet for a bizjet – unless you are seriously wealthy and have a converted widebody. Their house colors are actually quite nice and, since Boeing Field is a big base for them, seeing their jet in is not a surprise. It does look good, though.
The testing of the Eviation Alice continues. My first post on this was when they tried to do some high speed taxi trials but didn’t manage to get the plane going. However, they have been making more progress since. I managed to get up there when they were planning some more taxi trials. I was hoping for some more fast work which they delivered. Not fast enough to get the nose wheel off yet but progress all the same.
A few photographers were out to see what occurred. The test team did not seem too happy about the level of interest. I think they would prefer to get early testing work done without the world watching. They did have their own multimedia team, of course. Various cameras were doing the official recording and some drone work was done as they carried out the trials. A NOTAM for the UAV was in place for several days. I went with stills and video and put some stuff together for GAR and here is some of what I got. Let’s hope to get more as they progress.
I like unusual angles for shots. Most of what I get is pretty normal stuff. I am most interested in straight down shots but I have not managed those yet. However, straight up shots are possible and I have been getting a few of those when the opportunity presents itself. It is an angle we are familiar enough with, but the shot interests me because it isn’t the regular view we choose.
Not really a formation I’m afraid. I was shooting this PC-12 as it came in to BFI in nice light and a light aircraft was on the approach for the parallel runway. I almost got both of them in frame but not quite. However, I liked the shot so here it is.
Dreamliner deliveries have been stalled for about a year now with a brief interlude of deliveries early last year. They are stored all over the place including this American Airlines jet up at Paine Field. I think it had a radome when it was built but, clearly someone needed one and the easiest one to hand was on this airframe. Now it sits awaiting a replacement and – hopefully – acceptance and delivery!
Plenty of 737 Max jets are changing their colors at the moment. The cancellation clauses of the purchase contracts have allowed a bunch of airlines to cancel their orders without penalty as a result of the extended delays in delivery – something that may have been welcome during the pandemic! Boeing has seen an uptick in demand for airframes recently and has been mostly successful in reselling these finished airframes.
This one showed up recently at Boeing Field. It is all white so may have been identified as problematic before it ever got painted in airline colors. The people I was chatting too had no idea where it was due to go and whether it could even be a BBJ. No doubt it will soon find a home if it hasn’t already.
I was out for something else, but I happened to be around when a Lufthansa A330 made approach to SeaTac. The weather was nice, the light was good and an A330 was coming by. I could hardly avoid shooting it, could I? I am no fan of Lufthansa’s current low-key colors but on a good day, even they look alright.
As we started our drive home from Oregon, we were to pass through Astoria. There is an airfield at Astoria and it is home to a Coast Guard helicopter unit that flies the MH-60T Jayhawk. I think this is one of the better-looking variants of the Black Hawk family both because of the paint job but also the configuration of external fuel tanks. I hoped we might see one there, but we had a long drive home and I wasn’t going to subject Nancy to a long delay.
Imagine my frustration as we pulled off US101 towards the airport when an MH-60 flies over our heads towards the airport a mile away. The light was great, and it looked good but I was driving and it was going to land long before we could get there. Had I blown it? Two minutes earlier and we would have been fine. I pulled up and it was taxiing towards me. I grabbed the camera and got a few shots as it headed to the Coast Guard ramp. Check out the logo of Astoria in the shape of the Jayhawk.
However, it didn’t shut down. I thought they might just be running after landing checks but Nancy asked why they hadn’t stopped everything so we waited for a while. Sure enough, another crew walked across the ramp and climbed on board. A few minutes later, they taxied back our way and then lifted. The departure route has the bridge across the Columbia River in the background and, with great winter light, it looked great. They turned down to the south and were gone. I got back in the car and we were back on the road barely ten minutes after leaving 101. I got my helicopter and Nancy didn’t have a long delay!
North of Seattle is Arlington and the airport at Arlington is home to Eviation, a company developing an electric powered aircraft called Alice. They undertook some low speed taxi trials during December but plans for high speed taxi and flight were thwarted by consistently bad weather. A recent nice day on a Sunday looked like the first opportunity to do some testing again and a NOTAM was published meaning we knew something was up.
I met my buddy, Bob, up at Arlington and Alice was already out on the field when we got there. The time for the testing was at the end of the day so they were preparing for when the runway was theirs to use. Sadly, the aircraft was not playing ball. As is the way with flight test, things were not necessarily doing what they were supposed to. They did run one of the motors up to speed but the other failed to perform and resulted in the first shutting down too. Not ideal for an aircraft. No doubt they will resolve such things in due course. By the time they had spent some time troubleshooting, the sun was setting and there was going to be no taxi trial.
I chose the side of the field that was backlit since it was closer to where the testing would take place. Some great shots from the other side with the setting sun on the mountains behind were made by others. However, I was in the right spot when they dragged the plane back to the hangar. Things were getting pretty dark and I was very pleased to have brought the 70-200 f/2.8 with me since it did a great job with the lack of light. The raw images looked very subdued but they really came out well when I processed them.
I put together a piece for GAR on what we had seen. You can see that piece here if you want to check it out. It seems to have generated a lot of traffic which suggests there is a lot of interest in some of these electric aircraft projects. Whether they will be successful or not, we shall see. In the meantime, the weather got bad again but we shall hopefully have a break in it soon and a chance to see them taxiing the plane and then flying it.
It has taken a while for this post from the 75th anniversary celebrations at Kenmore Air. They operated one of the planes from the slough that runs alongside the base. They had back taxied one of the Otters to start its takeoff run from earlier to mean it was taking off close to the spectators. Then, when landing, they brought it down in the slough again. It made for a great view of the plane compared to the normal departures and arrivals way out in Lake Washington.
