Tag Archives: corporate

Sabreliner Testbed

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The Sabreliner is a neat little jet under normal circumstances, combining as it does the wing of the Sabre with a fuselage for passengers.  This example, that now lives in the Evergreen Aerospace Museum in McMinnville Oregon, is even better because it is a testbed.  The nose has a new radome grafted into place to allow the testing of different radar.  Meanwhile, pods can be mounted under the wings to test a variety of different sensors and electronics.  Some of these different configurations are displayed alongside the airframe.  Good to know that after years of specialized service, the aircraft will survive in the indoor comfort of the museum.

NASA Gulfstream STA

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The Evergreen Aviation Museum has more aircraft than it has space to display.  Some of them are parked out in the parking lot including a NASA Gulfstream II.  This is no normal GII either.  It is one of the four Gulfstreams that NASA had converted to act as Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA).  They were used for the shuttle crews to practice the approach and landing phase of a mission when the shuttle was gliding (very steeply) in the atmosphere.

The main gear was deployed to increase drag, the thrust reversers were engaged in flight and the flaps could be moved up as well as down to modulate life.  One seat was set up as a shuttle pilot station while an instructor sat in the other.  Many practice landings could be carried out using the STA fleet.  They also provided a secondary transport function.

The aircraft is currently in a rather ignominious position in the parking lot and it will hopefully find a better permanent home.

Great Scot!

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Dassault make some very elegant looking jets.  The Falcon 7X is a particularly good looking one in my opinion with perhaps the only issue being the extension of the fin below the tailplane which looks a bit like a fix for something.  This example was at Boeing Field heading out.  I don’t know where it lives because it has a Manx registration which means it could be from almost anywhere.  I did like the rest of the registration, though.  I hope they are Scottish rather than just someone called Scott!

Are These Globals Twins?

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Within the space of a few minutes, two Bombardier Global Expresses took off from Boeing Field.  This type is a regular feature at BFI so this is not unusual.  What did catch my eye was that they appeared to have the same color scheme.  If they were NetJets aircraft, that would make sense.  However, they didn’t look like a fleet operator I know (not that I know them all).  Is this just a standard scheme that Bombardier will finish the jet in if you don’t have a preference or were they connected?  If so, was a group of people taking two jets at the same time to go to the same place?  Who knows?

Union Pacific’s Falcon 2000

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Union Pacific is one of the large freight railroads in the US.  Their fleet of locomotives is commonly seen across the US west of Chicago.  They are painted yellow and carry a large American flag on the side.  However, trains are not the only way that staff of UP get around.  They also own a Dassault Falcon 2000 and I saw it come in to Boeing Field.  While it isn’t painted like a loco, it certainly shares a few design cues with them and it looks a bit more interesting than the average all white scheme.

My First Avanti in Ages

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I do love Avantis but, for whatever reason, I have not seen one in ages.  The distinctive sound used to be something I would see quite a bit in the Midwest before Avantair went bust and their frequent appearances abruptly stopped.  To see this one show up was a nice treat.  I have yet to see one of the latest EVO versions.  They have a five bladed prop instead of the six bladed version on the previous iterations so I have yet to find out how much the tone has changed.

Lots of Cessna’s Small Jets

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I like bizjets but, if I am honest, my preference is for the bigger jets.  The small jets are probably a more useful business tool but the big ones just look cooler.  I recently have come across a steady stream of the smaller products though.  The majority of these have been from the Cessna stable with CJs of various sizes popping up in front of me.  Normally I don’t give them too much attention but today I am going to share a selection of the little fellas.

Legacy 600 and a Close Relative

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When you consider the large cabin corporate jets, there is one jet that has not had as much success as it deserves.  The Legacy 600 from Embraer is a derivative of the E135 regional jet but transformed into a longer range and far more comfortable jet.  It hasn’t done much to dent the market that Gulfstream, Dassault and Bombardier have been operating in.  It doesn’t have the super long range of some of the competitor products but, given that many operators never go off the US East Coast, that range is not a big deal for many customers.  Prestige is though and the Legacy has never had the same cachet given its regional jet heritage.

This one showed up at San Jose on a sunny winters day.  The interesting thing was that something very similar was also flying that day.  The second aircraft is not a Legacy, though.  It is an E145 that is operated by Intel.  They have outfitted it as a corporate shuttle.  It runs their staff between their locations.  I don’t know what the interior is like but externally it looks a lot like a bizjet which, I guess is what it is.

BBJ at Medford

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Directly opposite our hotel during our overnight stop in Medford Oregon was a Boeing BBJ.  There was no way I wasn’t going to try and get a shot of it despite the fence.  The initial shots were when we first arrived because I didn’t know what the timing of the rest of the day would be. However, after dinner, the light was getting so much better so I wandered back out to have another go.  No idea whether it is based there or whether someone was just visiting.  We left before it moved.

Learjet and a Global Through the Fence

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San Jose has a little park next to the airport which provides a good place to watch the approaching aircraft.  It is also situated right next to the taxiway that the corporate jets use to get to the threshold for departure.  You get a really good view of them and, as the day progresses, the light is on them nicely.  Unfortunately, although not surprisingly, there is a big fence in the way.  It is a high fence and there are no spaces to photograph through.  The only option is to get very close to the mesh, try and align with the holes as well as you can and then shoot wide open to blur out any wire that does get in the shot.  It works surprisingly well.

In this case a couple of Bombardier’s jets showed up.  The Lear was nice to see but I do prefer the big corporate jets and the Global Express has been a favorite of mine for a long time.  I think it is an elegant jet and this one was painted nicely to enhance the lines.  I await the first chance I shall get to see the Global 7000 to see whether it shares the family looks.  I should pay my friends in Wichita a trip – to see them of course!