Tag Archives: Boeing Field

Aussie P-8

Leave a Reply

With the progressive retirement of P-3 Orions around the world, the Boeing P-8 Poseidon is starting to take over as the dominant maritime patrol aircraft.  The US Navy is the principal customer, but Australia was relatively quick to order the type too.  They are now in the process of being delivered and I happened across one coming back to Boeing Field at the end of a test flight.  Since it was operating from their military ramp, it taxied back along the field after landing and right by giving me a good look at the configuration the Aussies have gone with.  India has been another customer and, before too long, the first of the RAF jets should make it through production.

Max7 Number Two

Leave a Reply

The first Max7 test aircraft got a blog posting here but I have now seen the second in action too.  I think I first saw it on the ramp at Renton but I didn’t see the registration so can’t be sure.  Now it is engaged in testing and flying regularly out of Boeing Field.  It actually departed as I pulled up, so I only got to watch it rather than get a shot.  It was a bit overcast then anyway.

Later in the day it returned and this time the light was a lot more favorable.  I have yet to be able to gauge it against a 700 series and see the increase in length but the bigger engines are pretty obvious.  Still not a huge number of orders so we shall see whether it becomes a success but, in the meantime, we shall see them testing in the area for a while.

Concorde

Leave a Reply

Few would argue that Concorde is an elegant aircraft design.  It may have had commercial limitations, but it never failed to be a head turner.  Getting good shots of it when it was flying was not too difficult.  One the ground it can still be a good subject but having it confined in a tight space does make things a little more tricky.  The Museum of Flight’s example is in their covered annex across the street from the main museum.  The annex has a great selection of aircraft but they are right up against each other.

I decided, after getting some shots on an initial visit, that I would try something a bit different and took a fisheye the next time I went.  Concorde already has some interesting curves and a fisheye can either help of ruin them so some careful framing was required.  I combined that with a 70-200 to crop in close and avoid the surrounding clutter.  It was a fun experiment to see what you could achieve in a constrained environment.

Max7 Test Aircraft

Leave a Reply

The 737 Max8 and Max9 Jets are both certificated and in service.  Next to come along is the Max7.  It is a lower priority as a result of a far lower level of orders combined with a redesign it underwent to make it larger than originally intended.  It is now flying though.  I saw one aircraft on the ramp at Renton when passing by and also saw the first test aircraft landing at Boeing Field.  I actually saw it take off as I drove in to the city heading to a meeting and it returned at the end of the day.  Neither the Max7 nor the A319neo has sold well so it will be interesting to see how many of these enter service.

The First 737

Leave a Reply

The Museum of Flight has a number of prototypes of Boeing airliners.  They have the first Boeing 737.  This is a 737-100.  Very few of these were built with the 200 series being introduced soon and then taking over completely until the introduction of the 300 series many years later.  (For those of us of a certain age, the 200 series was known as the Classic once the 300/400/500s came into service.  Today they are often called Classic when compared to the NG models which are, themselves, now being superseded by the Max.)

The first airframe ended up with NASA being used for testing duties of all types.  At the end of its testing career with NASA, it made its way back to Boeing Field and to the Museum of Flight’s outside collection.  These are now under cover with a roof having been built over the many aircraft.  The 200 series is a pretty short jet but the 100 is even more so.  It is quite something to see this aircraft and compare it to the big aircraft that are now the staple of Boeing’s output.  The Max 10 will be nearly 50% longer than the original.

The aircraft is displayed in its NASA colors rather than the original in-house colors when it was first built.  Also, since NASA used it for a variety of odd tests, it has a bunch of additions from those test activities.  Since it is parked in amongst the 787 and 747 test aircraft and is kept at the far end of the space, it is a little lost I feel.  However, when you contemplate its place in the history of airliner development, it really is a very significant plane.  There was a time when Boeing contemplated selling the whole program.  How different things could have been!

Pegasus Testing with the Hornet (and it’s not raining)

Leave a Reply

My luck with KC-46s and bad weather broke recently with a Pegasus launching out of Boeing Field on a glorious day.  It was carrying out trials work with a US Navy Hornet.  This jet was the subject of its own post.  The KC-46 followed it down the runway.  It rotated in a good location and the light was so much nicer than I have had recently so I was very happy to get shots of it as it climbed out and headed off to the airspace set aside for testing.

P-8 Heads Out on Test

Leave a Reply

Every once in a while, you just get lucky.  I happened to be at Boeing Field on a sunny day with operations in a southerly direction and a bunch of cool traffic.  Most of the traffic shows up on Flightaware so you have a clue it might be flying but my recent experiences have been that the P-8 test flights have not been listed.  Consequently, I was a little surprised when a P-8 pulled out of Boeing’s military operations ramp and taxied for departure.  It came right past me as it made its way to the departure end.  A short while later it rolled.

The sun was out, the light was nice, they rotated at a good location to get some nice shots and then, as they climbed out, the clouds were really nice providing a mottled sort of background.  The colors looked great behind the grey jet.  What a great combination!

Sure, Wait for the Storm

Leave a Reply

When the weather starts to turn, you can assume that whatever you are waiting for is likely to show up just after it gets bad.  In this case, a KC-46 Pegasus was on its way back to Boeing Field and the clouds were rolling in.  Things were getting darker and it looked like the clouds would open.  Meanwhile, the KC-46 was still a distance away.

Sure enough, the skies opened.  By the time the jet was on final approach, the light had disappeared and the rain was belting down.  I got some shots of it but, even with a bunch of exposure compensation, the jet was more of a silhouette than anything else.  A little post processing help brought out the detail but this was not an ideal shooting situation.  A dark grey jet in dying light is just what you want!

Trailing Static Cones

2 Replies

For the people that don’t care for my aviation posts, this one won’t be of interest.  For the aviation fans that don’t care about the techie stuff, this will also be of limited interest.  That probably leaves a very small group of readers by now (Gary, I am trusting you are still here).  This is about a piece of flight test instrumentation that often causes questions when people see it.  It is the trailing static cone.

The aircraft has sensors that measure air data, two of the most important of which are the pitot probe and the static port.  The pitot probe measures the dynamic pressure of the air which increases as the speed increases.  The static port measures the air around the aircraft.  The difference between the two is used to determine the speed of the aircraft and the static is used to determine the altitude.  These are both vital information for a pilot.  However, the aircraft affects the flow of the air around it so, while you can calculate what the pressures should be, you need to validate what the actual readings are.  The first flights are carried out prior to calibrating the system so you need to have a bit of margin in the speeds you use until you have confidence in the readings.

Measuring static pressure is hard to do.  The plane will have a static port on the skin of the plane as well as possibly incorporated with the pitot head.  However, the air has accelerated to go around the fuselage so it is assumed to have a lower pressure than ambient.  Because the plane is disturbing the flow, you need a way to measure the pressure some distance away from the plane.  The answer is a trailing static cone.

This cone incorporates pressure measurement sensors and it attached to a long cable.  This is held on a reel inside the aircraft and fed out of the aircraft at the rear.  For airliners, this is usually through a modification to the top of the fin.  A comparison between the test aircraft and a production jet will show the different structure.  The cable dangles out of the fin and, as the speed increases, the cone pulls the cable taught and streams backwards.

When the testing is required, the cable is winched out and the cone is a long way behind the aircraft in what is relatively undisturbed airflow.  If you go to the Museum of Flight, the prototype 747 is on display and it includes the trailing cone equipment in the fuselage.  The reel is shown in its mounting location and the trailing cone is hung inside to allow you to take a look at it.