Tag Archives: Metrea

Metrea Defeats Me Again – Sort Of

I was heading to a meeting south of Seattle when I got a message from the person I was joining that they were running late. I stopped off at Boeing Field to wait for their call and to see if anything cool was around. One of the Metrea KC-135Rs was on the Modern ramp. It was the nicest of their paint schemes and the winter light was lovely. Naturally I grabbed a shot as I waited. They were looking ready to go and I hoped that they would take off before the call came through. I was to be disappointed. I heard from my contact that he was en route, so I left. About ten minutes after I did so, the jet took off. I can only imagine how good it looked in that light.

A few days later, I was back in Georgetown to meet some friends, and I saw that the jet was out again on a mission. It was due back shortly before sunset so I hoped I might get lucky with the light clearing up. It certainly wasn’t as nice as it had been previously, but you never know. As it turned on to the approach, conditions were getting better but not what I was hoping for. Despite that, the jet still looked okay as it came into land. It could definitely have been better but not a total bust.

Private KC-135s Look Best Without Barbed Wire

When the Singaporean Air Force wanted to add tanker capabilities a few years ago, they bought some surplus KC-135Rs from the US to operate.  More recently, they acquired some A330 tankers from Airbus and the KC-135s were, again, surplus.  This time they were picked up by a company called Meta Aerospace that bid on refueling work for the US Navy.  I think Meta has changed its name to Metrea – presumably to avoid being confused with the Facebook parent.

Whatever the name, they brought one of the aircraft to Seattle for a little over a week for work that was being undertaken over the Pacific off the coast of Washington.  They have their tankers painted in a rather nice livery with the company logos and I was hoping to catch one.  As it happened, one was up one afternoon and there was a chance of getting there after work to get it.  I headed down thinking I had some time in hand.  I was wrong.  They came back a little earlier than expected, the airport changed runways which meant I had to go further and traffic on that extra section was backed up.  I got to the fence just as it was coming over the threshold and I managed a few weak shots with sections of barbed wire cutting through the airframe in most.

I wondered whether I had missed my only good opportunity but, thankfully, they were around for longer than expected and one of the flights again gave me a chance to get there after work.  This time I was there with a bit more time in hand and was able to get some shots without the added benefit of wire foregrounds!  The plane was on the ground at other times but, at this time of year, the heat haze at Boeing Field is pretty bad.  Only on a crummy Saturday when my friend Chris was in town, was it possible to get a reasonably clear shot of it parked up.  I wonder if we will see it back here at some point in the future.