Tag Archives: Boeing Field

XF8U-1

I certainly won’t stand out from the crowd by claiming that I am a bit of a fan of the F-8 Crusader. Plenty of people think it is a cracking jet. I didn’t get to see many of them. French Navy jets were still in service and, while the RF-8s were in use with the Navy at the beginning of my interest in aviation, I don’t think I ever saw in in service example. Doesn’t stop me liking them though. The Museum of Flight has the prototype jet in their collection. Prior to the unification of the type identifiers between the services, it was known as the XF8U-1.

I first saw it while it was undergoing restoration at the museum’s facility at Paine Field. My first visit there was when it was free. You could just show up and wander around. Now you have to pay to get in but it is still a good visit to make. Restoration is when things are a lot less glamorous but you do see the work underway to makes things look great.

Now the jet has been moved to the main museum facility at Boeing Field. It is polished to a fine finish and is complete with an air data boom. The markings it carries appear to be authentic based on some original photos of the aircraft and, with its location close to the window, it does gleam nicely. Oh to find someone with a lot of money and a desire to have one of these jets airworthy again.

Details of a Pegasus

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The KC-46 Pegasus test program drags on. The delivery of jets to the USAF is still not happening and the number of jets built increases but they are stacking up at Paine Field and Boeing Field. Meanwhile the test jets are working through test points and endeavoring to prove that the problems identified in previous tests are now resolved. I have seen a few jets now and shot them in varying conditions from sun to downpours.

I was at Boeing Field one evening waiting to pick up someone at SeaTac later in the evening when one of the test jets taxied out from the Boeing ramp at the north of the field and came right by me prior to departing on another mission. The jet was configured with the boom and the underwing pods so the planned final configuration. As it came by, I decided to get some shots of the airframe to get a better idea of what the various parts look like.

The airframe is the familiar 767 although there are some changes structurally. The cockpit is updated too but you can’t see that from the outside. However, you can see the various sensors mounted around the airframe which, I assume, are radar detectors. Above the cockpit is the receiver receptacle for the refueling boom to allow the jet to receive as well as dispense fuel. You can’t see much from the ground other than the markings to guide the boomer (and the markings that identify which jet it is).

The underwing refueling pods are a source of some of the troubles the program is having. Apparently, the supplier in the UK underestimated what was required to achieve he civil certification that is part of the contract requirements. The pods may not be cleared when the initial jets finally enter service. Modern pods have a more streamlined look. Earlier pods have a blunt back end that the hose and drought come out of. The modern pods and more streamlined and the rogue comes out of a ramp in the bottom of the pod.

The back end has the boom. Given how many boom tankers Boeing has produced, modern booms seem to cause them a lot of trouble. This one is still one of the major defects with the jet. Hopefully it will be resolved soon. The boomer does not have a window like the earlier jets but instead uses stereo video cameras to give the boomer the view of what is going on. I assume some of the apertures around the rear fuselage are for the cameras to support this functionality. We shall see how long it is before we see this being used for real by the USAF as opposed to the test team.

NOTAR Sneaks Up on Me (I Guess It Works)

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In the late 80s and early 90s, NOTAR was a big deal. McDonnell Douglas Helicopters (as it then was) had come up with the concept of NO TAil Rotor and was pushing it hard. It was seen as a safer approach, quieter and potentially more efficient. The last one may not have been the case as, given how long the concept has been around, the successor company has continued to build helicopters with tail rotors as has just about everyone else (unless you count a Fenestron as not a tail rotor). This example came in to BFI right over my head. He had called up on the radio so I should have known but the quiet aspect of the aircraft was proven as I had no idea he was there until he passed directly over me.

Practice Panning to Make it Different at BFI

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I was killing some time at Boeing Field and the light was dropping fast. There was a variety of traffic inbound but nothing that counted as terribly unusual and not, therefore, something I desperately cared about getting a good shot with. As a result, I decided to play around with low shutter speeds to see how it changed the look of the shots at a familiar location, to see how the sharpness varied across the airframe and to see just how badly may panning skills have degraded. Needless to say, the results were pretty mixed. The worst of the lot will clearly never see the light of day but here you can see some of the shots that I was okay with. The conclusion from the output is that I should go a bit lower in shutter speed to increase the sense of speed.

G650 Passenger Watches Me Watching Them

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The G650 was a plane that got off to a good start. The combination of space and range made it a popular choice amongst those that have $60-70m to drop on a plane. Recently, things have been a bit quieter as the competition has ramped up but the deliveries this year have perked up. This one was departing out of Boeing Field and, as I zoomed in to check the sharpness of the shot, I could see the passenger in the cabin who seemed to be looking back at me. She didn’t have a camera, though, so I am the only one with a shot of the encounter!

Air Canada Max8

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Production of the 737s is rapidly transitioning from the NGs to the Max at this point. Still plenty of NGs being built but the Max is no longer a novelty and soon they will be the vast majority of what is coming out of Renton. I have seen a few Air Canada Max 8s and another one was heading out on a test flight while I stopped for lunch at BFI. I like the new Air Canada colors. As with any livery change, there are plenty that don’t appreciate it but I like the combination of retro and new and the fact it isn’t like everything else is good. The bandit eyes are a bit more of an acquired taste but they are fine I guess.

What Goes On These Pylons?

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An older generation of Learjet was heading out from Boeing Field. I almost ignored it but I got a few shots as it rotated and climbed out. As it did so I noticed it had a pod on an underwing pylon. A little further research shows it belongs to Phoenix Air. Apparently, they have a few Learjets that have electronic gear fitted – sometimes on pylons and sometimes internally. This pod appears to have dielectric elements front and rear so may well be an EW pod of some sort. I wonder if anyone knows more about these guys and what they would be up to.

Finally a VLJ Makes It

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About a decade ago, the very light jet was the hot idea. Everyone seemed to have a design and they were bringing tons of investment in to make the planes and sell them in quantities and at prices that had previously been unthinkable. As it turned out, there was a good reason why it had been unthinkable and the projects either never made it to production or made a few before bankruptcy followed (sometimes more than once). Eclipse did better than most in making jets before they folded, later re-emerging in a slimmed down form.

Cirrus is one company that stuck with it and didn’t go bust. It did benefit from a lot of Chinese investment and the fact it had a successful piston lineup to generate some income didn’t hurt. Their approach was the SF50 Vision, a single engine jet. It was a slightly unusual design but not a bad one and it has finally made it to certification and production. This example is a regular at Boeing Field so maybe it lives there?

DoJ SAAB

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Unmarked aircraft are conspicuous by their effort to be inconspicuous. I saw this SAAB 2000 parked up at the Clay Lacy ramp and, before too long, it taxied out and departed kindly backtracking passed me in the process. SAAB 2000s are not overly common anyway so that was the first thing to notice but, since it was completely white, I figured it might belong to someone not advertising their presence. Sure enough, it belongs to the Department of Justice. I wonder what it was doing here?

Low Level Departure by Learjet 31

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This Learjet 31 was heading out of Boeing Field on a lovely afternoon. The pilot obviously liked a bit of speed because, after rotation, instead of climbing out, he kept it on the deck and built up some speed. Then, as he got further along the runway, a more aggressive pull into a “zoom” climb. I appreciated the effort because it meant the jet had some ground behind it as it came past which is a pleasant change. The color scheme was pretty cool too.