Tag Archives: airliner

How Many 747 Operators Have I Shot?

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

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.

MD-10s Quietly Bow Out

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.

SOFIA On The Ground

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!

An Atlas 777F For MSC Air Cargo

A lot of attention has been focused on the end of 747 production at Boeing (and this blog will not avoid that topic) but, in the meantime, Boeing continues to produce 777 freighters which are selling well.  One evening I was able to be up at Paine Field when a 777F that will be operated by Atlas but is under contract for MSC Air Cargo, a subsidiary of a large shipping organization, returned from a test flight.  Getting a nice shot in good light is what you want when you have a new livery to shoot.  Sure, it isn’t like some artistic masterpiece, but it looks pretty good.

GlobalX Takes UW Students to Texas

The arrival of new airlines is of interest until they become a common sight.  When they are still small, they will be picking up all sorts of jobs to get their utilization up and bring in some revenue.  This includes odd charter jobs.  The University of Washington football team had made it to a bowl game that was being held down in Texas.  GlobalX was taking a bunch of the students down to the game.  A load of coaches dropped them off on the ramp and they slowly boarded the jet.  They certainly took there time about it but, eventually, everyone was on board.

As with all unscheduled flying, the wait for departure seems to take far too long.  The doors had been closed for ages but the jet was still sitting there.  I can imagine that a plane full of students was not happy waiting to get going (or maybe they couldn’t get everyone to sit down and strap in).  Finally they taxied and departed for Texas.  I don’t think the game went well for UW but the kids probably had a good time anyway.

Aussie Tanker on Show

The KC-46 will end up being a big selling tanker because the USAF will buy loads and a few export customers will follow suit.  However, where open competitions have been held, the Airbus A330 MRTT has been most successful.  It is developing a wide customer base and one of those customer is the Royal Australian Air Force.  They have brought their tankers, known as KC30, to the US on exercises but I had not seen one in person until I got to the Antelope Valley Air Show at Edwards AFB.  The tanker was sitting on the ramp in the static area.  It was looking particularly clean for a military jet and was configured with both the boom and the underwing pods for probe and rogue refueling.  Fitting in a big jet in a busy ramp is tricky so a pano can help out making a shot possible.  Now I just need to see one actually airborne!

Mojave Gate Guards

At the main entrance to the airport at Mojave is an area with some preserved aircraft from test programs.  While Mojave is not particularly welcoming to visiting photographers on most of their land, this location seems to be just fine.  The dominant aircraft is an ex-NASA Convair CV990.  It was used for Space Shuttle landing gear trials amongst many other things.  It is joined by an ex-USAF F-4 Phantom and a SAAB 35 Draken that had a second life at Mojave after retirement from the Royal Danish Air Force.

The Virgin A350 Comes to Me

When we were in the UK, I had hoped to see the Virgin Atlantic A350-1000s in use.  I did see them in the distance but never got anything of them moving.  I was a touch disappointed because the Seattle route is served by the 787 fleet and we don’t get anything as large as the A350 coming here – normally!  However, Virgin is apparently involved in supporting the NFL games in Europe and the Seattle Seahawks had a game scheduled in Munich.  Virgin sent an A350 to Seattle to collect them.  It operated the normal inbound flight and then took the team direct to Munich.

It arrived in good conditions and from the south which allowed me to get some reasonable shots of it.  Lighting was a little overhead but it wasn’t too bad and could definitely have been worse.  I wasn’t able to see them depart but, once the game was over, the return trip was made.  I didn’t get the arrival but I was able to see the final departure of the jet as it headed back to London.  Maybe Virgin’s traffic will grow enough to justify the A350 on the route more often?  I would certainly like more opportunities to see the jet.

Alaska Air Cargo Finally in Good Conditions

Alaska Air Cargo operates some 737-700s that have been converted to freighters.  For some reason, I feel like I have struggled to get any good shots of them.  I have either been too distant or the weather was crummy or I just made a bad job of the shots.  They operate in and out of SEA daily so you would think that, after six years up here, I would have got something of them that I liked.  Finally I got a bit more lucky.  Some afternoon departures to the north on days when I could be there and the light was cooperating meant I was able to get something better.  The -700 is not a big jet so, even with the 500mm, I was stretching things a bit but winter light makes everything better.  If only the Cargo logo wasn’t hidden behind the wing for a good chunk of the time.  The low light does make the texture of the door conversion on the front of the fuselage show up, though.