American Airlines Boeing 737-800 with its retro Astrojet livery. Photo from Boeing.
I am currently in Tampa, FL and while driving around I spotted a silver plane with a red logo on the tail. I could tell it was most likely a retro livery, but couldn’t place it. Luckily a few fine Twitter folk (@vivekmayasandra and @Shokikuchi) suggested it might be American Airlines Astrojet livery and sure enough it was!
This special livery comemerated American Airline’s 50th next generation Boeing 737. The airplane was delived to American at the end of 2000. The Astrojet livery was seen on American’s first Boeing 727s in 1964.
If you look at the blog, you might notice the header image has changed. Well, I am down in Florida for an extended weekend and decided to upgrade my WordPress blog software…MISTAKE! Not only did the whole blog go down for a bit, but when I got it fixed, my header image disappeared. I have it on my home computer and will fix it on up when I return home, but until then, you get to look at this wonderful temporary header that I edited in Microsoft paint :).
UPDATE: Thanks to a friend, Dan, I have a much better temp header to use until I return home!
UPDATE 6/20 10:30pm: Back home and proper header is back in place.
Coast Guard and Sheriff helicopters from a previous show
I am currently in Florida, so I won’t be able to enjoy this! But if you are in the Seattle are, be sure to check the American Heroes Air Show at the Museum of Flight, at Boeing Field in Seattle. The event is being held by the Flight of the Museum and Whirly-Girls. Not only are you able to see helicopters, but also get a helicopter ride with Seattle HeliTours (who rock by the way).
Here are the basics: What: American Heroes Air Show Where: Museum of Flight 9404 E Marginal Way South, Seattle, WA 98108 When: Saturday June 19th 10am to 3pm Cost: $0 FREE ADMISSION Check this flyer for more information
The American Heroes Air Show is the nation’s premier, helicopter’“only, admission-free air show event designed
to profile aviation’s dynamic role in law enforcement, public safety, media, communications, search and rescue, homeland security, national defense and local services. The event features static displays, flight demonstrations and information from flight crews.
A while back I did an Ultimate Livery Challenge and thought no one would get them. HA! Eight people ended up knowing the answers and I gave out eight prizes (Future of Flight hats). Well, I realized I had to make it harder…and I think I have. Here is the challenge:
GUESS WHAT AIRLINE EACH LIVERY BELONGS TO AND THE AIRCRAFT TYPE IN THE PHOTO.
Small print: I have not photoshopped any of these photos except to blur out reg numbers or flip the image to make it look pretty. You don’t need to know the exact model, just the family. (ie just need “Boeing 747” not “Boeing 747-300”). All these liveries are either new/old and used on planes doing passenger operations (ie not just cargo). All photo credits will be given with the answers.
Not too sure about all of them? That is ok. I do not expect anyone to get these all right. A prize (and link to your website…if you have one) will be given out to the closest person…so don’t hesitate to guess.
I also had a request to allow more time that wasn’t a weekday. I have listened. You have until TUESDAY JUNE 22nd at 5pm PST (update: I was sick yesterday evening and not able to get the answers written, so extended it) to submit your guess. Use the comments if you have questions (or want to complain about the difficulty), but do not put your answers there since I don’t others stealing your knowledge (or hard work). Please email them to me to da***@ai*************.com, send them via Twitter or my Facebook.
I arrived at the Future of Flight at about 9am to get ready for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner ZA005 to take flight. The weather wasn’t doing so great with mist, fog, and a low ceiling. There was no official time, but I was guessing 10am based on previous first flights. I thought the plan would be for ZA005 to complete high-speed taxi tests and then take off. However, time kept going and ZA005 just sat there. I heard a few different rumors of the reason, from a low ceiling to the chase plane not being ready. At least we got to watch a brand new Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 take off and land.
I had worked hard (took me three different ways) to get my iPhone hooked up to my tri-pod, so I could do a live feed while recording in HD, but I ended up having to tear it apart anyhow.
At 12:20pm I had to leave for an appointment I couldn’t miss. Since I promised a live feed, I left my iPhone with Sandy at the Future of Flight to do the live feed for me (THANK YOU SO MUCH SANDY)! However at about 2pm I got done with my appointment and made my way to a computer and saw the ZA005 had not taken off. BOO YA!
I hurried back and as I pull in I could see people along the fence still watching, so I knew I hadn’t missed anything. I grabbed my video camera and ran. Just as I got to the top of the hill and video camera turned on, ZA005 started rolling. For just running up a hill and not having a tri-pod ready, I don’t think the video turned out half bad.
I am never going to get sick of watching the 787 Dreamliner take off. They are so graceful, queit and oh man watching those wings bend is amazing. I am going to write up a blog with a little more information on these new GEnx engines being tested out today.
Over all I think the live feed function went well. By the time ZA005 took off there were 250 people watching the feed. I am excited to use that feature in future events.
