Check out all the Boeing airplanes behind the Boeing 747-8I at Boeing Field. Click for larger.
I love living in Seattle and covering the airline business. There is so many aviation related things to do in the Seattle area and there always seems to be something going on. Sometimes I will get a photo that really encapsulates that feeling of Seattle being someplace special and I think this one does just that.
The photo was taken after the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental landed for the first time at Boeing Field. Although the Boeing 787, 747-8I and 747-8F are built up north in Everett, WA, most are being stored at Boeing Field during flight testing (there is one in San Antonio, TX as well).
During this event, there was sure a lot of eye candy to be seen. Of course, there is the first Boeing 747-8I (hard to miss in her orange livery) and a 747-8F. There are also five Boeing 787 Dreamliners and I see 12 brand spanking new 737s, which will be delivered all around the world.
I know I wouldn’t want to live in any other city.
Air Asia Airbus A320 with Junior Jet Club livery
Guest post by Yvette Scott:
I’d like to thank David for inviting me back to his blog; I think you will agree with me that David’s coverage of the Boeing 747-800 First Flight has been exceptional, so for someone who is 4850 miles away, the coverage has made me feel like I am there. Credit for finding this livery has to go to Phil (aka @PlansAirports, aka MR @AirlinesAngel), who spotted it during his tour of Indonesia.
This Air Asia A320 is themed for their Air Asia Junior Jet Club, which is aimed at their young frequent flyers and features members of the Jet Crew. Air Asia, to date, has carried over 82 million passengers, and the fleet has grown from 2 to 85 aircraft and I hear that the staff’s favourite aircraft is the Junior Jet Club plane, so if you are travelling around Asia you might be lucky to be onboard this colourful aircraft.
Heck yes! DJ'n at 35,000 feet on KLM's new Amsterdam to Miami flight.
It takes something big to turn down an offer to fly on a party plane from Amsterdam to Miami on KLM. I was invited to KLM’s party flight, but unfortunately had to turn it down to cover the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental’s first flight.
Luckily Shashank Nigam, who runs the site Simpliflying.com, was on the flight and able to share all the excitement. “The KLM flight was quite exciting, and entertaining, to say the least,” Nigam told me over email. “It was the first time I was in a plane that felt more like a club, since everyone was grooving to the music being played by the Dutch DJs. Probably the most happening 10 hours I’ve spent in the air.”
The passengers were no ordinary folks. Sure there were quite a few DJ’s to offer block-rocking-beats, but also passengers who won KLM’s Fly2Miami social media competition. And actually the power of social media made KLM change the first flight.
Originally KLM planned to fly on March 27th, but a DJ and film maker explained that would be too late for participating in spring break events in Miami. KLM challenge them to fill the plane and they would make it happen.
One beautiful tri-hole. A KLM MD-11.
They started a website and social media campaign to get folks to get 150 people to sign up and only had seven days to do it. Luckily for them, it only took five hours to fill the plane and KLM changed the date to March 21st. Now that is awesome.
Well for social media it is awesome, for me it meant I couldn’t go. Although parting at 35,000 feet is pretty slick, I am more upset that the aircraft used on the flight was an MD-11 and I missed out flying on it. KLM is the only airline offering scheduled passenger service using the MD-11. For an airline nerd, this is awesome. KLM flies a fleet of 10 passenger versions and seven cargo versions of the MD-11 aircraft. This is a small percentage of their over 200 aircraft strong fleet.
KLM will now offer scheduled service from Amsterdam four days per week and is their 65th international destination.
MORE GOODIES:
* Video of Water canon salute
* Video of the DJ’s in action at 35,000 feet
* KLM’s blog about the event
Images: DJ from KLM, MD-11 from caribb
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner line inside the Boeing Factory. Here are 787s for Air India, JAL and China Southern.
During the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental event, invited guests were allowed into factory to not only take a look at the Boeing 747-8I and 747-8F, but also the Boeing 777 Worldliner and Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
This is a huge treat, since Boeing normally doesn’t allow people to take photos inside the factory, but this time, cameras were allowed and I had a hard time cutting over 300 photos down to just 26.
I already posted photos being on the factory floor with the 747-8, but now it is time to share some photos of the 787 and 777. Unfortunately, we still weren’t allowed down on the factory floor with the 787, but we were able to get up close and personal with the 777 line.
VIEW ALL 26 PHOTOS OF THE 777 AND 787 LINES
How many of these landing gears did you get correct?
Wow, you guys are pretty darn good. I was shocked how many different responses I received. I wanted to give a shout out to all those that got it all right, but I got caught way behind this weekend, so I am putting all the answers out.
Here are the answers:
#1: Boeing 747-8I for unknown customer and has been painted in the nice orange “sunrise” livery
#2: Boeing 767-300ER for ANA and the 1001st Boeing 767 built, taken inside the Boeing factory
#3: Boeing 737-800 for Alaska Airlines taken in Bellingham during Alaska’s first BLI flight to Hawaii
#4: Boeing 747-400 for United Airlines taken while hanging out on the ramp at LAX
#5: Bombardier Q400 for Horizon Air taken in Reno, NV during a short flight on Horizon
#6: Boeing 787 Dreamliner ZA002 with ANA livery taken after ZA002 took off from Paine Field after getting some work done
I think #6, the Boeing 787 ended up catching more people off guard. Stay tuned for the next contest — airliners have a lot of parts to use.
