Tag Archives: jet

Texas One Retires (for now)

I saw online this weekend that Southwest Airlines had retired Texas One, a jet painted up in Texas colors. Texas One is a 737-300 and Southwest is accelerating the withdrawal of the 300 Series jets. It flew out of Dallas to a facility that will break the jet for parts. By coincidence, I happened to shoot this very jet the day before when it arrived at SFO. I had no idea that it would be at the end of its career. Nice surprise. For those that like the colors, fear not. I hear that Southwest will be painting another jet in this scheme before too long.

Michael Jordan’s Gulfstream

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Waukegan Airport is the home for a number of corporate aircraft. One of the regular visitors is a Gulfstream belonging to a man who has a home in the area and who is associated with Chicago area sports in a big way. However, the aircraft is wearing colors that are more associated with his college playing days in North Carolina. The result is possibly not the most attractive paint job you have ever seen. It does include the logo of the man in question in his trademark (literally) pose of Air Jordan. I once spent a portion of a day driving around the airfield with the Airport Manager. As we went through one of the electronic gates, he spotted the remnants of a cigar on the ground outside the gate. Apparently, this is one of Michael’s cigars. He is not allowed to smoke them when on the ramp so he drops them just before entering the area.

The Royal Navy Comes to Farnborough

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Another flashback post today. This one is an old Farnborough airshow and it included a rather large flying contribution from the Royal Navy. I don’t now recall exactly why the Navy was so committed to this show. This wasn’t even on the public show days when the display is often modified for the public from the format used for the trade days.

The main element of the display was six Sea Harriers. These were FRS1 models prior to the F/A2 upgrade program. The aircraft took off in groups of three and included a formation hovering routine with the jets arrayed along the runway providing a jet in front of most of the viewing crowd. Some fast flying was also a part of the display of course.

Helicopters also contributed to the display and the low speed capabilities of the Harrier meant that it was possible to combine the fixed and rotary elements together in one formation. The whole thing made quite an impression as a recall. The sound of six hovering Harriers was certainly enough to give the eardrums a workout!

80s Airliners

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In previous posts I have talked about the program I am going through the scan all of my old negatives and transparencies. It is a far speedier process than I used to use but it is still pretty time consuming and I am about a third of the way through the collection. It will depend on how many rainy weekend days I get as to how quickly I go through them. Something I am discovering as I go is that I have a variety of shots I had completely forgotten about. Over the years I have gone through the sheets of negatives from various aviation events that I wanted shots from. I was pretty familiar with what was there. What I hadn’t realized was that my old film days would often include two or three shots of an aviation topic in amongst a bunch of other shots.

I have been coming across all sorts of shots, both civil and military that I had forgotten about. The majority of them are airliners, some of which are types now out of service and occasionally airlines that don’t exist anymore. Old 747-100s, some early Airbuses, 727 and 737-200, the occasional Ilyushin and even a Shorts Belfast show up. Needless to say there are some appearances by Concorde too.

A combination of poor technique, less than ideal conditions and some less than pristine negatives means that these shots are not going to be gracing the walls any time soon. However, they are an interesting reminder of things that have gone. I wish I had more comprehensive coverage of the time but I actually didn’t take that many pictures at that time. A tad disappointing but I can’t change it now.

Special Liveries

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On the whole, airline liveries are getting less and less interesting. Whether it is the branding style, the minimizing of cost or the need to return jets to lessors without too much repainting being necessary, they are ending up a bit dull. However, periodically, an airline will paint one or more of its jets in special color schemes. These may celebrate some event, recall a previous airline that was merged in at some point or be part of an alliance. Whatever the reason, it makes for some variety which is welcome.

I figured I would see which special liveries I have managed to photograph over some time. All of this was prompted by a recent China Eastern A330 that came in to SFO. My friend Roger told me it was coming in which came as a nice addition to the morning. As I was looking at the shots, I started flicking back through the catalog.

I decided not to include the alliance aircraft here. OneWorld, Star Alliance and Skyteam jets tend to be rather similar so I didn’t think they added something special. However, plenty of other jets have been more distinctive looks. It turns out that I have more of them than I realized and I didn’t want to just food this page so maybe I will have another batch of these at some point.

Everyone Has a Trainer Design

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The late 80s was a period when a whole bunch of companies were trying to come up with the perfect trainer. A large number of sir forces were considering the replacement of their trainer fleets and much discussion was underway about what the appropriate type of trainer was for the future. Basic jet trainers were ultimately going to be replaced with turboprops in a lot of places but that was in the future. Meanwhile, all sorts of trainer designs were in the works either for the basic training task or for slightly more advanced levels of tuition.

Some of these designs made it to production. Some of them never got beyond the prototype stage. Not all of them went away entirely. Even today you can still see some of the designs in an upgraded and modernized form being pitched at much the same market as they were thirty years ago.

Let’s start with the Redigo. Built by Valmet in Finland, the Redigo was a turboprop evolution of a previous piston trainer, the Vinka. It was seen as a capable but low cost training solution. Finland bought a number although they are now retired. A couple of export customers also took some. Aermacchi bought the rights to the aircraft in the 90s but I haven’t heard much about it since.

The Microjet was a small French design. Powered by a couple of diminutive Marbore turbojets, it produced way more noise than its small size would have suggested. The V tail configuration was distinctive and it made a number of airshow appearances. The project was supposedly driven by Microturbo, the manufacturer of the Marbore engine – presumably to create a market for the engine. It never proceeded beyond the prototype stage though.

Promavia created the Jet Squalus aircraft. Promavia were a Belgian company but the design was originally from Stelio Frati in Italy. Painted in colors that represented Belgium, it showed up at a number of air shows. However, it also never proceeded beyond the prototype stage.

The RFB Fantrainer was a German program. It was a tandem seat aircraft with a ducted fan behind the cockpit. It was designed to provide fighter-like handling characteristics in a training aircraft. It was judged successfully in a competition to provide a trainer for the Luftwaffe but instead they went with a USAF based training program and did not take the aircraft. It was sold to Thailand, though. I don’t know what their current status is. The aircraft was also the basis for a jet powered aircraft offered for the US JPATS competition by Rockwell. However, it lost to what became the T-6 Texan II.

Pulling a Cloud With You

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Getting shots of vapor is a popular thing when shooting fast jets. An airliner on a damp day can also result in some clouds being formed. While shooting something special at Oakland, I was getting a few shots to make sure the light metering was working as planned. A Southwest 737 came in and, as it flared for landing, it had a nice cloud of moisture form over the wing. Normally these things pop up further out on the approach and don’t make for a good shot but this one was close at hand.

The Early Emirates

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If you were to ask someone to name one of the dominant global airlines these days, it wouldn’t be long before the name Emirates came up. The rapid growth and large fleet of wide-bodies makes Emirate a familiar sight around the world. It is easy to forget that is was not always thus. I first saw Emirates in 1988. At the time, I had a small book of airliners around the world and it listed the planes that were potentially going to be seen in the UK. It didn’t include short haul jets from the opposite side of the world but it did have something that could conceivably be seen. At the time, Emirates were listed as having one A300 and two A310s. A far cry from what they have now.

They used to fly in to Gatwick with the A310s. While working for the CAA, I got to spend a bunch of time under the approach to Gatwick recording noise levels of the passing jets. I did manage to get the occasional shot too! Here is a scan of a slightly rough negative of an Emirates A310 passing the middle marker. This plane would now be considered a bit too small for their regular operations!

Those That Sneaked In

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I learned something significant while shooting the airliners from above LAX. It is a lot harder to see an airliner from above than I thought. In the many years of flying, I am familiar with the importance of maintaining a good lookout and the difficulty of spotting other aircraft around you in the sky. From our locations over the airport, we were generally picking out the aircraft from a background of the city, not the sky. I had figured that we knew the approach paths and what was due in so we would not have trouble seeing the planes as they came in.

I was very wrong. First, they are not easy to find at all. Three sets of eyes were looking but we would find things at odd times, sometimes when they were very close. Also, with parallel operations to the 24 and 25 complexes, you can get distracted by activity on one side and miss out on something the other side. The result of this was that we did not see some of the jets until they were on the ground. Pete, who was with me, flies 777s so we were keen to get the BA jet when it came in. We knew the arrival time and still managed to miss it until it was on the ground. An Air France A380 also sneaked in past our “diligent” scan. An Aeroflot A330 was also successful in coming in untouched.

All of these were a little frustrating but not terrible. However, it did give me pause for thought about how I would plan the flight the next time in order to keep track of the things that I most wanted to get. This flight was my first time trying this so I was happy to have got so many shots that I like. The missed ones are not the end of the world. I did learn a lot though and will make sure I use that knowledge next time.

B-1Bs on a Mission

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The B-1B Lancer is a cracking aircraft. The combination of size and power makes it look epic when it is in action. A B-1 departure is not something that you will forget in a hurry. Four large afterburning turbofans will get your attention and it has a very elegant shape to boot. The variable sweep wings add a little interest too. At minimum sweep for takeoff and landing, they look a little ungainly given how long the span is. Put them all the way back and pour on the coals and the jet can really get moving. Sadly, airshow appearances are few and far between these days so the chance to see vapor clouds forming around the jet are limited. (I recently went through some old negatives from a UK airshow at which a B-1 made a fast pass in damp conditions. The shots aren’t great but the effect is cool.)

A couple of B-1s would launch each day as part of the Red Flag 16-1 exercises. I was lucky enough to have a couple of good opportunities to see then. When we were out between the runways, the B-1s launched off the right side. Not ideal for lighting but you aren’t going to complain. Because they are a large jet, you have to make some choices with lenses as to what you are aiming to get. A quick swap of bodies can really help. A long lens is not much use when they are level with you but the cool shot from behind as they climb out benefits from the big glass.

On my first day there, the jets returned at the end of the mission as a pair. Sadly, the clouds had moved in and the conditions were not great for getting a shot. However, you aren’t going to ignore them. On the second day when I was at the EOR, we got a good view of the two jets taxiing out and taking off. The heat haze is a bit of a problem but not so much as to make it something you can avoid shooting. Operating as a pair, they look more menacing.

Often the B-1s are at the end of the recovery phase. However, on this day, they came back relatively early. I was still at the EOR when they broke into the pattern. They did land on the opposite runway from the one we were at but they are big enough for this to not be a big deal. A nice bit of mountain in the background certainly helps enhance the shot a little. What a great looking jet. I don’t know anyone who isn’t excited when they see one in action.