Tag Archives: Boeing

Qatar’s Apaches Look Better Than Everyone Else’s

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The Apache is a mean looking helicopter with plenty of angles and bumps to make it an interesting photo subject. However, the one shortcoming is that it is usually painted a dark green colour and that really sucks in the light. Getting a great shot of it is surprisingly difficult. Qatar, on the other hand, has done a nice job of coming up with a desert camouflage scheme for their Apaches. It really stands out against the usual dark schemes. It looked great in the sun when it arrived at RIAT. On an overcast day, even it struggled in the static display, though.

Not Sure the Laminar Flow is Surviving

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If you look at the most recent Boeing aircraft, they have adopted a far deeper inlet lip design. I don’t know whether it is connected but they have been doing work on having laminar flow around the engine cowlings. When the 787 first came along, airlines were not allowed to have them painted anything other than white. That has since been relaxed but there was a performance benefit to the design that was needed to meet promised goals. Consequently, I imagine that this area is quite sensitive to disturbance. That makes this Qantas 787-9 stand out to me. There was a load of patching on the inlet when I saw it taking off from Heathrow heading to Perth. That is a very long flight and tests the performance of the Dreamliner in its nominal configuration. I guess the impact can’t be that bad.

Reworking an Old Shot with Modern Denoise

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Periodically, when thinking about the latest processing tools that I have available, it takes me back to some older shots that would be interesting to rework. This shot of one of the Blue Angels jets was taken at NAS Oceana during one of their air shows. I was shooting with the 1D Mk IIN and at ISO 800. At the time, this was a really high ISO and resulted in a lot of noise in the images. (As an aside, I did find that printing did not show the noise at anything like the level that was apparent on screen.) Even without the denoise function, the latest raw convertor makes a decent job of the file but I figured I would use the denoise too. I think the file comes out really cleanly as a result. It also helps that, as an 8MP file, the processing is a lot quicker!

Well, They Didn’t Survive

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I wasn’t terribly shocked when I recently heard that New Pacific ceased trading. The model seemed a bit suspect when it was first announced and they rapidly transitioned to charter work and away from schedule flying. I still liked seeing their 757s when they showed up in Seattle but I never thought they would survive long. Sadly, that proved to be the case. Here are some other shots of their operations which we won’t see again.

RAF’s First Wedgetail

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The provision of airborne early warning seems to be a topic that is vexing countries currently. The RAF retired its E-3 fleet without a replacement. They then ordered five Wedgetails only to later reduce the order to three. Now there is discussion of increasing it again. Meanwhile the US decided to similarly replace the E-3 fleet with Wedgetails and ordered two.

A change of administration brought a plan to scrap that idea, use satellite surveillance and buy some more Hawkeyes in the interim. Congress is pushing back on that. Meanwhile, NATO had planned to go down the Wedgetail route but is now looking elsewhere given the lack of commitment from the US to the platform. SAAB’s GlobalEye has since picked up more orders including one from France and NATO might follow that route. All a bit of a mess.

Anyway, all of that is a long prelude to the fact that the first of the RAF’s Wedgetail fleet made an appearance at RIAT in 2025. It was supposed to appear on one day but apparently scrubbed. Consequently, it was rearranged to come in the following day. I imagine the RAF didn’t want the embarrassment of it failing to appear. It made a run in with the Red Arrows providing formation support. Then it made solo passes and an approach for a touch and go.

I don’t know how far off service entry it is, but testing continues at Boscombe Down. I have seen its distinctive outline on the airfield when driving along the A303. Hopefully they will be active before too long and also that, this time, the funding is provided to keep the systems current unlike the issues that led to the E-3 fleet fading away.

The Etihad Livery is a Standout

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I posted a bunch of shots from Heathrow in an earlier post, but I saved this one for its own post. The A380 is a plane some love and some hate. If you have been a passenger on one, you probably love it. It really is a great experience on board. It does seem to make people feel better about themselves that it wasn’t a huge success. Not sure why that happens but people are strange.

I have seen a ton of them over the years, but Etihad was an operator whose fleet I had never photographed until I moved back to the UK. At first this was only from a distance too. When I saw one was coming in a little after the American Airlines special, I decided to wait for it. In an era of white planes, a colourful plane is so welcome, and I find Etihad’s livery very appealing. Here is a great looking jet.

A Few Quick Heathrow Departure Shots

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My weekend visit to Heathrow was focused on arrivals but, before I headed home, I did want to check out one more thing. This was not for a lot of photography, but I just wanted to see what the location offered. It was along the south side of the field and would give me a view of departing jets from the south runway. It doesn’t provide much in the way of variety of shot types, but it can provide a dynamic angle on jets just after they have rotated. In nice light, it was a few minutes well spent. Not sure I would spend too long there but it would be good for getting something specific. The fence is a nuisance immediately after getting airborne, but AI tools can do a good job of removing that since I wasn’t up high and the planes are soon clear of the fence line.

Winter Light on Heathrow Arrivals

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The arrival at Heathrow of the American Airlines retro 777 got me out to Heathrow on a sunny weekend. I got there early to make sure I was in a location that worked before the plane arrived and, since the spot I had hoped for worked out, I was there in plenty of time. I also saw that there were a few other interesting aircraft (to me) that were coming in. Consequently, I got to photograph a bunch of planes.

With it being Heathrow, I was going to get a load of British Airways’ A320 family jets. I would probably have not normally cared about A319s, but it won’t be long before you don’t see those again. However, the unusual liveries/airlines that came in were of more interest. My first encounter with an Air India A350 or a Middle Eastern Airlines A321 was great. Other airlines/types I have seen before but maybe not photographed in such nice light. Here is a selection of images from a delightful lunchtime as planes flew by. I did try to stop taking pictures and just enjoy the planes for a while too.

American’s Retro 777 Catches the Sun

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A friend of mine in Fort Worth had shared some images of the latest American Airlines plane to be painted in a special livery. This was a 777-300ER that was aiming to replicate their old paint scheme although it was grey rather than polished aluminium. It is a livery that seems to have divided opinion. I was kind of curious as to whether it would show up in the UK at some point and put a trace on the tail number in case it came to Heathrow.

I hadn’t anticipated that it would get a hit almost immediately. It was scheduled on the DFW to Heathrow run on Sunday. Add to that, the weather was looking great. The only downside is that they were due to be arriving on the north runway, and I had not ever shot there. However, I decided to give it a go. I went a bit early to find out if my plan for where to shoot would work. Parking was a bit of an adventure, but the location was a good one, so I waited and chatted to some guys from Gloucestershire that had turned up for the same reason.

I don’t think it is a great paint job. The red nose does have a bit of a Comic Relief feel about it and grey is fine in good light but will be dull on other days. Then again, I do complain about boring liveries, and this is something else. It also got me out and shooting on a day when otherwise I might not have done so glad it all worked out. I am also told this was its first commercial run post repaint so that is something I suppose!

Chinooks Use Our Area for ILS Training

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The RAF’s base at Odiham is not too far from where we live and it has been home to Chinook operations since the type was first introduced to service. I guess that there are training requirements for instrument approaches for the crews because it is not uncommon for them to show up over our house as they head to Southampton Airport. They will fly a few patterns which can include coming over the house.

Usually, they are a bit offset from us if established on the localiser and, while the Chinook is a large airframe, they are a bit distant for a good shot. However, I have managed to get a few when the light was more favourable. At some point I will get a closer encounter with them.