Tag Archives: airplane

The Curves Are So Cool

At quiet times, I browse through older shots to see what I have shot in the past that might not have been the most interesting subject of the shoot but was worth another look. I had been photographing with a bunch of guys at O’Hare a few years back as the evening was drawing in. We were out at the west side of O’Hare and the evening light was great. An Embraer E175-E1 took off and turned overhead us. The low light angles picked up the underside of the aircraft as it turned. The bottom of a wing has a lot of complex curvatures to it and the low light angle really emphasizes that shape. This shot really appealed to me for that reason.

FedEx Has A New Base

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The end of 787 production at Everett has also meant that Boeing doesn’t have a need for the Dreamlifter operations center that they had built there, next to the Future of Flight visitor location. I assume the space was leased from the airport but that might not be right. Whatever the case, a new use has been found for it. FedEx has set up a small operation there. SeaTac is their main base in the area and they have a steady stream of wide body freighters heading through there. Everett is a single 757 each day. I assume this is the beginning of things and that there will be more to come. I can’t imagine that they will make that investment for one freighter a day. We get a bunch of FedEx 767s on test prior to delivery but the 757 is a nice addition.

Norwegian P-8 In The Air

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Boeing is churning out P-8s at quite a rate these days. Most go to the US Navy but a fair few are for export and the most recent export customer to have their jets delivered is Norway. The Royal Norwegian Air Force has started taking their jets – the first of which I saw on the ramp at Renton. I did recently catch one coming back from a test flight which was a bit more interesting. The Saint symbol on the fin seems to be common to the jets I have seen so far.

A First Encounter With Ukraine’s Workhorse

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There are some aircraft that have been built and flown in huge numbers which it is almost embarrassing to admit that you have never photographed. One such aircraft is the Antonov AN-12. This was a ubiquitous military transport for the eastern bloc and, while it is now a rather aged design, it still has a good role as a civil freighter. However, I have never seen one in action until recently.

A Ukrainian registered example from CAVOK Airlines was coming in to Seattle. It was due to arrive at around 1pm which meant the light would be right on the nose. The worst possible case. Of course, that was assuming that there would be light. When it actually arrived, the sun was well obscured by clouds. Given the dark colors of the plane, maybe that was a good thing. Two minutes after it had gone, the sun was back out of course. It was trailing smoke from its old generation engines but it was definitely a highlight of the last few months of movements.

Goodbye Alitalia

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Airlines come and go but there are some that seem immortal, despite the fact that they really should have died. Alitalia was one such airline. It had gone through financial crisis after financial crisis. All sorts of EU rules were broken with the government propping the airline up and then they got support from another airline which probably regretted it very quickly. It now seems that they have finally gone. The failure of an airline is obviously traumatic for the people that work for it and I am genuinely sorry for them. However, Alitalia really needed to go. There is a new airline in Italy and they have bought the rights to the name. They paid less than half of the minimum bid that the people selling the rights said they would take. It looks like it was just to stop someone else using the name but we shall see. Let’s hope ITA is a better run operation.

A First Global 6500 For Me (and Then Another)

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Bombardier’s Global 6000 has been a very successful jet for them. With the arrival of the Global 7500 at the top of their line, the next question was what to do with the 5000 and 6000. They got an upgrade put together which has moved them up a little. Some aero tweaks, an interior upgrade and the new Rolls Royce Pearl engines resulted in the new models. Visually, I wouldn’t know how to tell the old from the new but at least flight tracking information lets you know which is which.

My first encounter with one was at Boeing Field. A Spanish registered 6500 was parked over at Modern and it departed while I was there. Since it is a large jet, it has to cross over to our side of the runway to taxi for departure. The food news was that it went full length rather than departing from the intersection. This provided a good opportunity to shoot it close up. Then it headed off. Despite the range, I think it was only going to Arizona so it wasn’t taxing the capabilities of the jet.

It wasn’t long before I got a second 6500. Again, Boeing Field was the venue but, this time, it was arriving rather than departing so I was able to get it in the air. The conditions weren’t quite as nice as for the first encounter but it was still fine. I like the original Global Express, liked it when it became the Global 6000 and I still like it now. It might have been around in these various forms for a while but it is still an elegant looking jet. Where is my checkbook…

WH004 Back at Paine Field

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The 777X program is hardly zipping along. The four test aircraft have been in use for a while now but the certification is not due until the end of 2023. After being built at Everett, the test jets all headed to Boeing Field. However, the fourth test aircraft, WH004, recently went back to Everett. I’m not sure why but it did a bit of flying out of there. One evening, I popped up to get a photo or two when it was returning. Conditions were ideal but a white jet will always have a bit of light on the airframe.

Odd P-8 Fin at BFI

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While waiting for an arriving 777X, I looked back across Boeing Field at the Boeing military ramp. They had a bunch of P-8s on the ramp at that time but one seemed a bit odd. First, it didn’t have the fin cap attached. I am not sure what might be the reason for removing it. Also, something about the paint on the fin was odd. It looked like someone was in the process of repainting it. Since it was on their ramp and the rest of the airframe was obscured, I couldn’t see which airframe it was or which customer it was destined for so no idea what the story might be. Anyone with any suggestions?

The Bits That Are Allowed When On BFI’s Runway

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I mentioned in one of my earlier posts about walking along the runway at Boeing Field during the FOD walk that there were some limitations on what we were allowed to take photos of. Fortunately, I was at the end of the runway that didn’t have any limitations. Therefore, I could shoot anything that was on the Boeing civil ramp as well as the main terminal ramp for the airport.

There were 777Xs on the ramp, KC-46s and plenty of 737 Max jets. The bizjets near the terminal was also in abundance. Here are some of the planes I shot on that rather gloomy morning.

737 Rear Fuselage Design Evolution

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The 737 has gone through many design iterations. With the introduction of the Max, the rear fuselage got quite a redesign. The original 737 tailplane was redesigned for the NG family when it was widened. This affected the rear fuselage a small amount. However, there were clearly still issues with that part of the plane given the large number of vortex generators that were fitted. These are always there to fix things that aren’t quite as they should be.

The Max has a totally reconfigured rear fuselage. Boeing clearly decided to clean up the issues that they had been living with. Any opportunity to reduce drag is needed when you are competing with the newest version of your opponent. They have thinned the fuselage a lot and this is one of the easiest ways to spot that a jet is a Max rather than a previous version (the others being the engine size and the winglet type). The APU inlet has also been relocated.