Delta has gone in for the A321neo in a big way. They are taking delivery of them at a pretty steady pace. That doesn’t mean you get them everywhere as some types get focused on regions that others don’t. For a while, we didn’t see too many of the neo jets up this way but that seems to have changed now. I am seeing loads of them if I am around SEA these days. Here is a selection of shots of their jets that I have taken in recent months.
Nothing too special about this one. It’s just because Epics are a pretty rare type and a rather unusual looking plane so, when one shows up and I am lucky enough to be able to catch it, I think it is worthy of note. The fuselage of this type has a strange shape with a slightly humped look to it. It goes against the “if it looks right, it flies right” idea but it might just make for a more useful cabin for the occupants. Until I fly in one, I’ll never know. Would be good to get one air to air, though.
One Sunday earlier in the year, I was up at Boeing Field for the arrival of an old Gulfstream. That proved to be a successful encounter and has been on this blog already. However, that was not the only bizjet traffic that day. I ended up with a variety of corporate aircraft movements.
There was a Canadian Challenger as well as some NetJets examples. A Falcon 7X was on the move which is a cool looking aircraft. There was also a Falcon 50 parked near the road alongside a Hawker. An Excel came through which isn’t that special but then we got an Eclipse which certainly is. It was a fun time to be out photographing with a lot in a short space of time. Here are some shots of those planes.
It seems for each generation of airliner, the smallest one from the previous generation is the one that doesn’t do so well. The 737-500 sold reasonably well but the -600 was the unloved on of the NG range. The -700 sold well but the Max 7 is not really attracting any love (except from Southwest). The A320 family has the same thing. Apparently, the small one just doesn’t age well. The 737-600 did not end up with many airlines so I have few shots of them. Aside from the Janets, these are the only operators I have seen.
I’ve posted shots of Murphy Mooses (or however that should be as a plural) in other posts including one with a turbine engine. This one showed up at Olympia during one of the Olympic Air Shows. It’s an average looking plane but stick it on floats and it immediately looks more interesting. It landed and taxied in and then didn’t move again while I was there but at least I got some shots of it.
I have not done well in my previous efforts to photograph NASA’s DC-8 environmental sampling aircraft. I had taken some distant overhead images when I was down at Star Wars Canyon and had hoped to see it fly at the air show at Edwards AFB last year. Sadly, that didn’t happen as it was down for some maintenance issues. With it due for retirement soon, I figured that might have been it. However, I was chatting to some friends a while back and they informed me that it was due to come up to Everett for about ten days of flying in November.
This proved to be the case. A program with Boeing as part of their EcoDemonstrator program had a new 737-10 that is ultimately destined for United (if the Max 10 ever gets certificated) flying with sustainable aviation fuel and the DC-8 flying behind it to sample the air, identify the emissions particles and measure the types of contrails formed but the different elements of the fuels. The Max 10 was painted in a special livery which included the EcoDemonstrator Explorer program name.
The DC-8 was operating from Paine Field for the trials. I was not able to get it arriving, but it was there long enough that I didn’t miss out. These shots are from the first time I was able to see it getting ready to fly and heading out. Over the course of the time it was here, I had further encounters and some of those are worthy of their own posts. Consequently, there will be more to share of this fantastic relic of a bygone era in passenger aviation.
Drake recently announced he was stepping back from touring, but this comes after he has been on quite a touring schedule. Seattle was one stop he made. He has his own 767-200 that is operated by Cargojet for him. It is painted in a distinctive sky-blue livery. It came into Boeing Field for the duration of his stay in the city. Sadly, his schedule means he finishes a show and jumps on the plane to fly to the next location overnight. That meant it arrive some time after midnight and departed at an inconvenient time too. I only got it while parked and the light was not great either. Still…
Frontier Airlines names all of its planes and the names reflect the wildlife artwork on the fin. One of their A321neos was taxiing out at Portland one morning. It had some sort of weasel-like creature on the fin and the name of the plane was Kari the Fisher. I certainly get the Star Wars reference but I had to look up Fishers to find out that they are a member of the weasel family. I had never heard of them before. Nice to think that my enthusiasm for aviation can be educational in other spheres!
One of the reasons we get a stream of unusual freighters into Paine Field is the delivery of sections of fuselage for the production lines. This can include front fuselage sections, center wing boxes and empennage elements. One afternoon an Antonov showed up to deliver some of these parts. While getting the plane arriving was why I was there, it was interesting to see these chunks of future planes (I believe these were for the 767/KC-46 line) being offloaded and driven off to be used.
A while back, I had a spate of photographing Lear 60s at Boeing Field. The Lear 60 is not a rare jet but nor is it particularly common so seeing a few in a short space of time, caught my attention back then. The 60 was Learjet’s effort to stretch as much as they could from what they already had. They took the existing wing and added a bigger fuselage. This was possibly the limit of what could be done with that wing.
I think it is a slightly disproportionate looking aircraft. The fuselage looks a bit chunky, the wing seems small for the fuselage, the undercarriage appears to have been carried over so the wheels look particularly small for the overall size. It is a bit of an odd one. Even so, I still like it when they show up. Since they have been out of production for a while, they will start to disappear. They will be around for a while but will progressively become less common. I wonder how many times I shall have so many encounters in a short space of time.
