JetBlue celebrates their 10th anniversary with a special livery.
Happy 10th Birthday to JetBlue. To celebrate, the airline painted one of their Airbus A320’s in a special livery. Normally the JetBlue livery has unique tails with the rest of the fuselage being the same on all aircraft. This celebration was too big to just stay on the tail and the 10’s go up to the wings.
Dave Barger, JetBlue’s CEO said, “since 2000, we have succeeded in building a new airline category that focuses on friendly service, free snacks and drinks, comfortable leather seating with ample legroom and complimentary satellite radio and live TV on personal seatback screens. We look forward to our next 10 years and thank all of our loyal customers and crewmembers for an incredible decade.”
JetBlue is based out of New York with a fleet of about a fleet of 150 Airbus A320’s and Embraer E-190’s. They are known for providing free satellite TV, XFM radio and unlimited free snacks.
Recently Sukhoi announced they hoped to start delivering the Superjet 100 to airlines by mid-year. Now they are saying it won’t be until the end of this year. ’œThe first planes should arrive at the end of 2010,’ Deputy Transportation Minister Valery Okulov said without elaborating. Previous reports show delays are from the engines issues.
Sukhoi was originally looking to start deliveries of the Superjet in late 2008. The aircraft already has orders from Russian and European customers. The Superjet will hold 75 to 95 passengers, be able to fly about 2,500 miles and compete with the Bombardier CRJ’s, Embraer E-Jets and China’s ARJ21. It is also expected to replace aging TU-134 and Yak-42 aircraft.
So far Aeroflot, Russian’s flag carrier, holds the largest number of orders. This would be the first new airliner built by Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
What comes up, must come down. After being in the air, flying over the Olympic Peninsula and heading over towards Mount Rainier, the Boeing 747-8 landed at Paine Field in Everett, WA a little after 4:15pm today. The day started foggy and we weren’t sure if she would take off, but it turned into an amazingly sunny and clear day. I would imagine Boeing got some wonderful pictures of the 747-8 flying today. Hopefully they will share soon.
The day started out pretty foggy today and the first flight of the Boeing 747-8 was delayed for a few hours. It was well worth the wait, because when she took the air, the sun was out and the sky was blue. The Boeing 747-8 was surprisingly quiet on take off and the chase planes made much more noise.
The Boeing 747-8 is scheduled to be in the air until 4:22pm, when it will land back at Paine Field (and I will be there to take video/pictures).
I will be on the Future of Flight Strato Deck taking pictures and video of the event. Check back on this blog for all the updates, pictures and video of this morning’s first flight.
NOTE: Some people have asked if they can use my pictures and video — yes please. I just ask you give credit and link back to my blog!
UPDATE 9:10am: It is mighty foggy right now. Just watched a Emirates Boeing 777 take off and it disappeared instantly into the clouds. Hopefully it burns off soon. Boeing employees are starting to gather along the runway. Posting a few foggy pictures to my Flickr.
UPDATE 10:30am: The first flight has been delayed due to weather.
UPDATE 10:50am: Been change to no definite flight time due to weather. We now just sit and wait. While waiting I uploaded a few more pictures to Flickr.
UPDATE 11:15am: Hearing the Boeing 747-8 could take off as early as noon. Also hearing 2pm. Stay tuned, I am not leaving!
UPDATE 11:50am: Told Boeing 747-8 flight flight should be happening with-in an hour. Starting to see blue in the sky.
UPDATE 12:43pm: She took off and looked wonderful! Great job to Boeing all of the people that made the first flight possible. Working to get photos and video up soon.
UPDATE 3:30pm: The Boeing 747-8 is still set to land at 4:22pm at KPAE.
