Tag Archives: Korean air

Korean Air’s Unusual Dreamliner

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A Boeing 787-8 showed up at Boeing Field a while back.  It is listed as operated by Korean Air, but it is not in their markings, and it is identified as being used as a corporate transport.  I don’t know the details about it, but I doubt I will ever be needing to charter it, so it probably isn’t an issue.  I went over by the terminal to see it arrive in the morning.  I hadn’t anticipated where it would park but it did need to clear customs first and they parked it at one of the larger ramp areas near the customs pad.  This meant it taxied back to where I was which was handy.  Plenty of people were on hand to handle it when it taxied in.  I don’t know how long it stayed for.

Korean Air BBJ Is Back

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Korean Air’s fleet of bizjets come through Seattle quite frequently.  Their BBJs are not uncommon.  They use the airfield as the departure point for the trans-Pacific route to Korea.  Unfortunately, they often arrive in the middle of the night and head straight back out again.  I timed it well when they were making a daytime stop.  I got the arrival and the departure this time.

Conditions were not great but, last time I shot one of their BBJs, the high sun made the livery glare a bit.  Flat lighting avoided that this time.  The departure was a good one for me.  The route across the Pacific is a long one so the plane was pretty heavy.  This meant it rotated a long way down the runway and closer to me and was still only just climbing when it was level with me.  I went with a long lens which meant things got large quickly.  It did give me some shots I was pretty happy with, though.

Korean Air BBJ

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I was surprised to discover that Korean Air, while being a major airline, is an operator of corporate jets.  I’m not sure how an airline ends up in the bizjet market but they have.  They have Globals, G650s and BBJs.  One of the G650s was in SEA recently but I didn’t have an opportunity to see it.  However, I did get the BBJ on one of its visits to BFI.  It was stopping at BFI before making a direct run back to Korea.  It is quite a nicely painted jet.  Lots of the windows are blanked out on the front fuselage.  A check on their website shows this is where some sleeping seats are installed.  Plenty of smaller accommodation at the back for your lackeys to use while you rest up front if you like.

Korean Air’s Last 777

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I’ve seen a few Korean Air 777s on test at Everett since we moved here.  This one was heading out on a delivery flight on a Friday evening.  The only reason it gets a post is that, from what I can discover, this is the last 777 that Korean Air has on order.  They have a bunch of 787s to come in the coming years but this is their last 777-300ER.  They haven’t ordered the 777X (which, given how many different widebody types they operate, is quite a surprise!).

First Flight of a Korean Air 777

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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.

Korean Air Dreamliner on Test

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I had a couple of encounters with the same jet while it was on test.  (It’s brake dust already showed up in this post.)  This 787-9 is, by now, part of the Korean Air fleet.  I saw it depart from Paine Field one evening in pleasant light.  The low sun angle really brought out the shape of the underside of the wing in a way that normally you just don’t get to appreciate.  It showed up a second time while I was out to get the farewell flight of the Delta 747 which I wrote about here.  It came in at a similar time and the wet weather helped to make the pale blue color scheme pop a bit more.

Smoky Brake Dust on a New 787

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This Korean Air 787-9 Dreamliner is seen taking off one Saturday afternoon from Paine Field on a production flight test.  It was lightly loaded so it was off the ground pretty rapidly and was already cleaning up the gear as it came toward me.  The wheels are braked before the gear comes up to stop them spinning before they enter the bay.  This can result in a burst of brake dust that blows clear in the slipstream and the shadow of the brake dust showed up clearly.  As they continued the climb out, they actually lowered the gear again.  I think this was to cool the brakes given they had done a high-speed taxi run prior to the takeoff.

Korean A330 Aiming for the Keys

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C59F9253.jpgAfter watching a few aircraft making their approaches, you get a feel for how high the jets will be at a given point.  Any variation from this seems pretty different, even if it is not really that large.  A Korean Air A330 made its approach and it seemed noticeably lower to me.  There was a displaced threshold in operation so maybe they were aiming a bit closer to the piano keys than normal.  They didn’t do anything untoward but it did catch my attention.

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What Does 40 Years of Design Get You?

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AU0E1641.jpgThe Boeing 747-8 has not been a terribly successful program.  Boeing decided to update the 747 family with new engines and revisions to the wing along with a stretch to the fuselage.  The resulting jet was delayed by its own and other program issues and it came around at a time when there were few passenger airlines interested and the freighter market was taking a kicking.  The result has been anemic sales and a production rate that has steadily reduced as a result of the low demand.  However, from a technical point of view, it is a nice upgrade.

C59F2632.jpgThe wing came in for a lot of attention and was significantly redesigned.  The most conspicuous change is the introduction of the swept tips common to many Boeing designs these days.  Less obvious is that the flap system was completely redesigned.  The original 747 flaps, carried through on the 747-400 are very complex.  Sections are triple slotted.  The Boeing aerodynamicists came up with a single slot design to replace this which apparently has good performance but I imagine is a lot simpler to make and maintain.  Only from the rear on approach can you see the difference.  These shots compare a 747-400 from Air New Zealand with a Korean Air 747-8 and you can see for yourself how much simpler the new design is.

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