Tag Archives: airplane

Another 727 But This One Has Winglets

I had been talking with some friends at Boeing Field about the Kalitta 727s that we had seen recently and we got on to the subject of winglets on the 727 and that the jets we had seen didn’t have them.  Little would I know that I would address this a short while later.  Kalitta Charters II was bringing another 727 in to Paine Field on a weekend evening and it was a different airframe to the ones I had photographed to that point.

It was also fitted with winglets!  I am not sure how good the winglet design is on the 727.  It looks like a pretty basic design and doesn’t seem to be very well integrated in the way that later winglet designs are.  However, it must provide some benefit because they have sold a fair few of them.  I clearly made the trip up to Everett to catch its arrival and I wasn’t alone.  One more 727 in a time when they are not very abundant and a different configuration to boot.

Encounter With a Breeze A220

Since Breeze started service in the US, I have not had much of a chance to see its aircraft.  They don’t provide service to our part of the world yet.  I have seen some of the Embraer fleet it operates when those jets have come to Boeing Field.  This was of interest but slightly disappointing to me since the fleet is going to be made up of A220-300s and the Embraers were an interim fleet.  Of course, that might make them the most interesting jets in due course.  I did want to see the A220s, though.

I had to make a work trip to Orlando in October.  My flight arrived in MCO at midnight and, as we pulled on to the gate, I see a Breeze A220 parked next to us.  I got a shot of it with my phone but it was dark and the lighting from the terminal was definitely not good for the colors of the livery.  The fact that they used that gate, though, gave me cause for optimism when I was due to return.  I got to the airport with plenty of time and my flight was delayed.  Consequently, I was able to watch another Breeze A220 as it pulled in from its flight and, then again, when it departed.  The phone had to be the option again but I think it worked out okay – at least until I get a chance to get some more shots at some point in the future.

Getting the Cougs Jet in Lovely Light

When Horizon was still flying the Q400s, they painted a bunch of them in the colors of Pacific Northwest universities.  The Q400s have gone and the Embraer E175-E1s are now the only aircraft flown by Horizon.  Thankfully, they have decided to continue the practice.  While we were away, I saw that a jet had been painted in Washington State colors with “Go Cougs” written in the fuselage.  I was disappointed to have missed its arrival but it wasn’t long before it was scheduled for an evening arrivals in to Paine Field.

It was a Sunday and we had been up in Skagit County and I didn’t know whether our return would be in time (or if I was going to have to suggest a diversion on our way home to Nancy).  As it was, we got home in good time and I had a while before I headed back out.  With the seasons turning in the direction of autumn, the light is getting nicer and it was ideal conditions when the jet came down the approach.  I could have waited for the departure but I had what I wanted and there was still dinner to think about so I headed home again.

My First Polaris – Just In Time

The Royal Canadian Air Force will soon be getting new tanker transport aircraft.  They are going to buy some Airbus A330 MRTTs to replace their CC-150 Polaris jets.  These are based on the A310 and I have never seen one before.  Fortunately, there was one on static display at Abbotsford for the air show.  It was in the grey scheme rather than the brightly painted version but that was fine by me.  I was just glad to get one before they are replaced.  It would be good to see one flying but I suspect the chances of that are diminishing.  You never know, though.

Wandering Around an Avanti

The Avantis that had been operating at Paine Field have relocated their base to Arlington instead.  I think they are getting maintained there and so it is the new base of operations.  One of them arrived while I was up that way and it parked up on the main ramp.  I wandered out and chatted to the owner as he put the plane away for the evening and then, once he had gone, I continued to get some shots.  The airframe is a selection of interesting shapes so I was trying to find good ways to shoot it.

The fuselage shape tapers aggressively, there is the front wing, the main wing and the tailplane and then there are the engines and their props.  Lots to try and work with.  The engines are interesting in that the exhaust from the PT-6s blows right on to the roots of the props.  This heat must be a form of deicing but it also must require something of the blade construction to manage the heat.  There is some sign of the particles in the exhaust in the dirt patterns that form across the blade roots.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  The Avanti is an amazing looking aircraft.  The combination of cabin size and performance is unmatched by turboprops (and a lot of jets too).  I wish it was more successful.  Lots of people focus on its noise but that doesn’t bother me.  However, having looked at those props in more detail, I can’t help but wonder how much of that noise is from the exhaust interacting with the blades rather than just the blades themselves.

All Star Flyover Jets But Only Just

The All-Star baseball game was in Seattle this year.  Baseball is not my thing so I wasn’t paying too much attention although I did have a meeting near the stadium and discovered just how much a parking garage will charge on the day of the All-Star game!  However, they did have some USAF F-35As in town for the flyover proceedings.  I was south of the city later in the day and started to head north close to the time when the game was due to start.  I had been hoping that I might get up to Boeing Field for their launch but, as I drove north, I could see the jets pulling off their run over the stadium.

I figured they would recover quickly but headed for the approach end of Boeing Field just in case.  Fortunately, they had taken the scenic route and had been touring around Puget Sound.  I was there in plenty of time for their landings.  One thing that I had not really noticed before about the F-35A is the approach angle of attack that the jet adopts.  The planes seem to have quite a nose high attitude when on approach.  The radome is short so the field of view is probably not a problem, but I was surprised I had not spotted this previously.

I got the jets all landing but they were really a series of repetitive shots of similar looking jets.  Nothing too special but still nice to have a different jet here for a while.

Finally, The Aero 45 Is Airborne for Me

I have seen the Aero Vodochody designed and Let Kunovice built Aero 45 before at events.  However, it was always parked and never in motion.  I think it is such a cool looking like aircraft and reminds me of a mini Heinkel HE-111.  I really wanted to see it flying and I have had two opportunities this year to do so.  First it showed up at Concrete for the fly in.  This was great news as I got it landing from close proximity and then again when it took off.

It was not a lot later that the Arlington show was setting up.  I wasn’t going to be at the show but I was there the day before for some warbird flying and the Aero 45 was coming in to be on static.  (This was a repeat of the first time I saw it in person which was also at Arlington.). Not so close this time but another opportunity to catch it in flight.  What a cool looking plane.  Glad we have it up here in the PNW.

Dreamlifters Are Still Here Occasionally

The end of production of Boeing 787s at Everett meant that there was no longer a need for the Dreamlifter operations to support Dreamliner production.  However, while the Dreamlifter base has closed, there are still some production activities at Everett on the 767/KC-46 line that require large structures to be delivered and the Dreamlifters are used for this sometimes.  I understand at least one of them is currently stored, but the others are active.

I only rarely find myself at Everett when the Dreamlifter is there, but it has happened a few times over the last few months.  Here are a few of the shots I have got since these things became a little bit rarer up this way.

My Buddy Was Flying This

Getting a British Airways 777-200ER arriving at SEA would not normally be a priority unless the light was great and I was going to get Mt Rainier in the background.  If the weather was cloudy and it was arriving from the north, might not seem to be that much of a deal.  However, if it is being flown by someone I know, that is a different story.  My friend, Paul, was the skipper on this flight and I was meeting him to have some time around Seattle before he headed home the following day.

The clouds were a shame but the light wasn’t totally bad.  I figured it would need a bit of work in post to try and make the best of the shots but the lack of heat haze did help a bit.  I was able to grab a few shots of the jet as it came down the approach and then as it was over the threshold prior to touchdown.  Not the greatest shots Paul will have of him flying but, hopefully there are not too bad.

Typhoon Air Data System

Working through some older shots for another project, I ended up looking at some shots of an RAF Typhoon displaying.  As I was zoomed in on some of the shots, it was interesting to see the air data vanes on the underside of the front fuselage as the plane maneuvered.  There are several vanes around the underside of the front fuselage and the differences between them can tell yaw and pitch angles.  In one shot when the jet was climbing straight up, the vanes are all pointing in similar directions.  Shortly before this, as the jet was pulling hard, the angle of attack was higher and the flow up around the front fuselage results in some significant differences in vane angle.

This is the sort of thing that is very important when designing and clearing a flight control system.  We had a front fuselage wind tunnel model for the Typhoon during the development program.  This was used for intake design but also for air data system modeling.  The way in which the various vanes move is vital to understanding the control law requirements.  It is also important when considering failure modes.  If one vane should fail, how much it impacts the flight control behavior and how much the system detect the failure.  Will the aircraft be vulnerable to control loss in the interim?  The Tornado did not have as complex a flight control system, but it did have augmentation of the controls and, as it rolled, you would get quite different readings from the angle of attack probes on each side of the fuselage.  How much of a difference was normal versus what was a failure was an interesting analysis problem which I enjoyed working on.  My days on Typhoon were relatively limited and shortly before first flight so I never got involved with the results of the testing program, but I do enjoy looking at the resulting aircraft whenever I get the chance.