It was pretty exciting getting to the Farnborough Air Show this year. The highlights were seeing Qatar’s Boeing 787 and Malaysia Airlines Airbus A380. Pretty cool aircraft, but there are some epic aircraft seen on this video, taken during the 1967 Paris Air Show.
The footage highlights Eastern Air Lines and the DC-8-61, but you can see other gems, like a TU-114, Electra, Concorde and a few others.
A classic Boeing 737-200 seen in Sky Airlines livery. Photo by alobos flickr.
You don’t see too many Boeing 737-200s flying around the world much anymore and especially one with such a cool looking livery. When I recently landed at Comodoro Arturo Merino Benàtez International Airport (SCL) in Santiago, Chile, this livery caught my eye.
Sky Airline (notice the lack of an “s”) is based at SCL and was founded in 2001. It is Chile’s second largest airline and is considered a low-cost carrier. The airline mostly operates domestically, but has international routes to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Peru.
The airline operates a fleet of Airbus A319s, A320s and is in the processes of phasing out the classic Boeing 737-200.
I seem to be a sucker for a blue/green livery and with the swooping line and palm trees on the tail, it looks slick. Although I am sure the passenger experience will improve with the elimination of the 737-200 from the fleet, it is a bit sad from the AvGeek perspective.
Good food. Good views. What more do you want? Photo by Paul Paulsen – AirTeamImages.
What are you doing on Saturday, September 29th? Hanging out with a bunch of AvGeeks at the In ‘N Out Burger by LAX? Correct answer.
JOIN US! CrankyFlier (you might know him as Brett Snyder) is having his second annual Cranky Dorkfest and I am joining in on the fun. Join other AvGeeks to talk about aviation, take some photos and spill condiments all over your shirt — do not worry, we will not judge.
There are some pretty cheap tickets into LAX right now (got mine from SEA for $149 round-trip), so what a perfect time to do a little mileage run. Nothing you really need to do, except show up at 11:00am PT at the In ‘N Out and bring a camera. Hope to see you there!
Photo taken from the LearJet chase plane by Jaunted. Image by Joe Corrigan
This story was written by Cynthia Drescher with Jaunted.com and re-published with permission…
Have you ever been on a flight and spotted another flight off in the distance? It’s just the coolest thing to see another plane in midair; they become your friend for a few minutes, as if you’re sharing the delicious secret that 38,000 feet is the place to be. And it is. Now imagine that flying alongside other airplanes was an everyday occurrence for youeven better, that it’s your job. This is actually the case for the badass pilots and aerial cinematographers at Wolfe Air.
Thanks to our buddy David Parker Brown of AirlineReporter.com and the team at Wolfe Air, we were able to go beyond watching the LAN Boeing 787 Dreamliner delivery flight to participating in it while discovering how Wolfe Air makes their magicthe magic of capturing the Dreamliner on film, in flight, from a few hundred feet off the raked wingtip.
The chase plane seen from the LAN787 Dreamliner.
Though Wolfe Air has an arsenal of three aircraft, it’s their Learjet 25B that’d be our whip on this trip. From a distance, the slick plane looks jet-black; up close it’s actually a smart charcoal gray to eliminate glare and reflections on other aircraft. Typically based at Hawthorne Airport outside Los Angeles, the Lear has specially flown up to Everett, WA’s Paine Field this day, in order to fly out ahead of the Dreamliner, circle back around and join up with the plane as the 787 heads out over the Olympic Peninsula.
Erase any preconceptions of private jet interiors from your mind. Wolfe Air’s Learjet is all business on the inside, and its ability to shoot IMAX, hi-def, Vectorvision, and digital stills means that camera equipment has booted the leather seats and champagne bar. And thank god for that, because the serious G-forces we felt on some turns to position for shots aren’t for your average bizjet.
There aren’t luxurious seats inside the LearJet, but there is a lot of technology. Image by Joe Corrigan
Aside from the two pilots up front, two camera operators squeeze in the rear, remotely controlling the lens ports in both the top and bottom of the Lear’s fuselage. It’s this way, over the 1.5-hour flight over Washington’s scenic terrain, that LAN will end up with the polished midair photos to put in commercials, in magazines, online and anywhere else they want to show off their new Dreamliner.
Curious to check out more of Wolfe Air’s work? Just hit up Netflix, as Wolfe are the people behind the in-air filming that makes movies like Air Force One, Transformers and Thirteen Days so awesome. Not to mention that Wolfe has actually had a hand in NASA’s preparations for the Mars Curiosity Rover (more on that here).
MORE IMAGES FROM THE CHASE PLANE:
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Disclosure: We were at the delivery of the LAN 787 Dreamliner as guests of Boeing and LAN Airlines and a guest of Wolfe air onboard the photo flight, but all photos, video and opinions are strictly our own. [Video: Joe Corrigan/Omega Pictures. Photos: Joe Corrigan, Cynthia Drescher and David Parker Brown/Airline Reporter]
Walking into the media entrance at Farnborough 2012.
This story is unfortunately delayed, since I wrote the complete series and then lost it. So, I get to start over and hopefully I remember mostly what I originally talked about. Oh right, I flew to London and saw some planes… I think there might be a few more details than that.
I’ve been to plenty of airshows in my day, but not THE airshow. Every other year, the big airshow of the year takes turns at Farnborough (outside of London) or Paris. This year, was Farnborough’s turn and I decided it was time to take the plunge.
Monday through Friday, the airshow is only open to vendors, media and invited guests, where Saturday and Sunday is a public airshow. I was curious to check what was offered during weekday since the show is quite different over the weekend.
To get to London, I took Air New Zealand’s flight from LAX.
Before I did anything, I had to brave an application process for authorization to attend the show as media. After a few hurdles, I was approved and could move forward with getting my airline tickets and hotel.
While most of my international trips are planned out for me by a public relations contact; this time I was entirely on my own. First I dealt with the question: How do I get there? What airline would provide a unique journey? Air New Zealand, of course. AvGeeks know the power of riding a carrier’s uncommon route and the Air New Zealand Los Angeles (LAX) to London (LHR) takes the cake. I was set to fly their Premium Economy over to London and their Business Premiere back. Now that my flights were set, time to find my hotel.
There was quite a bit of walking to get to Farnborough, but the views were too bad. This is just outside of the Farnborough North train station.
I had never been to London before and wasn’t really sure how things worked. I probably should have asked for some assistance, but decided to figure things out on my own — I kind of messed up. You see, I was late in getting my hotel room and my budget was pretty much non-existent for this trip. I knew I was probably going to have to find a place to stay outside of Farnborough and certainly not in London due to costs. I found a town less than 15 miles away from the Farnborough Airport called Bracknell and both locations had a train station. DEAL!
Here’s the problem; Bracknell is located north of Farnborough, but most of the trains run east to west, not north to south. Every morning, I would get up, walk a mile to the train station, take one train transfer, and walk another mile to another train station to catch a bus to get to the airshow. The 15 mile commute took me two and a half hours in the morning and about two hours to get back at night. Lesson surely learned.
The pain was quite worth it. Each morning my adventure would begin at the Farnborough Airport by being dropped off by a double-decker bus.
Just some of the Chalets located up the hill at Farnborough.
It’s very difficult being a single media person and knowing what the heck is going on at the airshow. First of all, there aren’t many preplanned press conferences or events and those that are, changed daily. Most days I would show up with little planned, but my schedule would become packed as the day evolved. By the last day I still wasn’t able to take a check out all the static display aircraft. It killed me, one of the primary reasons I went was to check out the planes.
The other issue was internet connection. You have about 110,000 people located in a small area, which means that cell reception was almost impossible to get. The airshow had a special media facility that offered free Wi-Fi, but it was not much better. Luckily, many other companies had their own media facilities (called chalets) and Boeing and Airbus both had free Wi-Fi that I accessed (sorry Airbus, but Boeing’s was a bit better).
My second home while in London; Boeing’s Media Chalet at Farnborough.
Because of the internet issues, it was more likely that someone sitting at home, reading about what is going on at the airshow was more informed than a media person on-location (aka me) in a complex sea of information without solid web access. Eh, I was okay being uninformed and enjoying myself — I had no real agenda.
Larger media organizations like Aviation Week and Flight Global had huge staffs, their own chalets and obviously quite a few resources to cover the airshow from top to bottom. I went to the airshow without any real game plans except hoping to get on the Malaysian Airbus A380, the Qatar Airways 787, see as many airplanes, meet new people and have fun — mission accomplished.
In PART 2, I will talk in more detail about what it was like being at the airshow and what I hope to have accomplished next year (if I am able to go). Until then, enjoy the photos…
