I have been gathering various shots of Boeing Dreamlifters over recent months and so figured I would just combine a bunch of them into a single post. No overriding theme here and some conditions were way nice than others. It is just a selection of shots of one of the more unusual looking aircraft around. Hopefully, one day, I shall get to shoot the Airbus Belugas too.
I should probably have planned this post better and timed it to coincide with the actual event but that didn’t happen. The Marine Corps recently retired their last EA-6B Prowlers and the web was full of shots of Prowlers to celebrate the event. I like the Prowler a lot so I thought I would get in on the act. I have shot Prowlers a bunch of times over the years whether it was on flight lines, on exercise, during training or at an air show. Here is a selection of some of my favorite Prowler shots.
I had a long layover at Salt Lake City when connecting on a Delta flight. The sun was out and the mountains in the background were covered in snow so it made for a rather pretty backdrop for the airport operations. It was a bit Delta-centric given that they hub at the airport and we were in one of their terminals but it did make for some nice light and scenery for aviation shots.
A new airliner, fresh from the paint shop, looks splendidly clean. When you have an interesting paint color, things are better still. This Korean Air 777-300ER was making its first flight from Paine Field when I shot it. It looked great in nice light. When delivered to the customer, it will be pristine. Then, regular service will result in it looking a little bit more worn and grubby depending on how much time is available to clean it up. Airbridge dirt marks and others scuffs or leaking fluids will seek to muck it up a bit.
How about another airline that I don’t normally see? Tiger Taiwan operates a number of flights to Japan. I saw them both at Narita and at Hyakuri/Ibaraki. I figured I would share a couple of shots of their jets in service for those that haven’t seen them before.
Finally, the first Boeing KC-46 Pegasus tankers were delivered to the USAF. Not one but two tankers were delivered in the ceremony, a nice effort at a joke by Boeing having left everyone thinking it would only be one. Then again, when you have that many of them sitting around, I guess it should have been even more! The ceremony took place on one day and the delivery was the following morning.
The jets left from Paine Field just after sunrise. That is sunrise if you don’t have clouds on the horizon. The sun had barely squeaked above those when the two jets took off as Medusa 1 and 2. They were preceded by a McConnell AFB KC-135R – the aircraft that they will be replacing. It got airborne in very limited light and headed for Kansas. Then the two new jets lined up in turn and departed. No flybys or wing waggles. Just gear up, switch to departure frequency and off into the steadily brightening sky. Avoid the traffic inbound to SeaTac and off you go. Lots more should be following soon while efforts continue to fix the issues with the camera system and the underwing hose and drogue pods.
The Thomas Cook A330s do come in to Seattle and I got some distant shots of one once – it was actually one of the Voyagers that is leased out by Air Tanker – but they were not much use. SFO proved to be a better hunting ground and the light even played ball. This is not a Voyager – just a standard A330 – but the Thomas Cook colors popped a bit better this time around.
Nothing special here. Just happened to get a Gulfstream G280 as it arrived at Everett so I thought I might as well share it here.
This is just a gratuitous Boeing 747 post. The jets are fast disappearing from service with the major airlines but British Airways (those of you that call them British Air just stop!) has a substantial number of them left and they are due to stay around for a few more years. This one was arriving at SFO in 2018. It came into view across Coyote Point and headed down the approach in nice winter light. There will come a time when they are gone so appreciate it now. I have flown on more of them than I can recall so have plenty of happy memories of traveling on them.
The only civilian 767s being built at the moment are for FedEx. I posted one of them on test at Paine Field in this post. I caught another one recently. I got the departure early on as it disappeared into the clouds that were pretty low. The return later had slightly better light. The approach was terminated with a go-around resulting in some vortices streaming from the wing as they climbed out. Dark skies make for an interesting background!
