One Dreamlifter and two Airbus A380's sharing a hangar. (click for larger)
Oh yes! Now this is totally amazing airplane eye candy of the largest scale. One Boeing 747 Dreamlifter (N780BA) parked between not just one, but two Airbus A380’s inside Lufthansa Technik’s Fankfurt hangar. A big tip of the hat to Jon Ostrower on his blog FlightBlogger for sharing this amazing photo (check his blog for more information on the airplanes).
Head to the Future of Flight to get a close look of a Dreamlifter (N249BA) and four Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
Yesterday was a very nice day in Seattle for it being almost the middle of November. Figured it might be a good day to head back to Paine Field (KPAE) and take a look at what is going on. As always, there were a few nice surprises.
The biggest is one of the Dreamlifters (N249BA) is parked just feet away from the Future of Flight (photo). The DreamLifter is sitting right next to four Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Rumors are the Dreamlifter will be parked there until the end of the month and the Dreamliners should be there at least through the winter.
The 787’s and now the Dreamlifter are hanging out next to the Future of Flight due to Boeing’s turf getting pretty full. I don’t think I have ever seen so many new airplanes at Paine Field (photo). One of the new liveries seen out on the ramp is AirBridgeCargo’s on a Boeing 747-8F (photo). To date have seen Boeing’s “lite” livery, Cargolux, Cathay Pacific, Korean Air, British Airways (partly) and AirBridgeCargo on the Boeing 747-8 Freighter to date.
During my visit a brand new, not even fully painted, Air France Boeing 777-300 (F-GZNH) took off (photo – video). I have seen quite a few Boeing 777’s take off, but it never gets old. One of my reasons for heading to Paine was to check out the Eva Air Boeing 777-300’s. I have been covering their issues with Koito seats and they have been moved from the tower (photo1 –photo2) and one had a test flight today. I am working on an update on their story to share soon.
MORE:
* 40 Photos of Paine Field (KPAE) from yesterday
* Video of Air France (F-GZNH) Boeing 777-300ER taking off from Paine Field
Two Royal Air Maroc and one JAL Boeing 787 Dreamliner next to the Future of Flight
Here it is, the beginning of October and for some odd reason we are having really nice weather in Seattle. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. Knowing Saturday was probably going to be one of the last sunny days we are going to see around these parts and knowing Boeing towed three Boeing 787’s right next to the Future of Flight, I figured it was a really nice day to go visit Paine Field (KPAE) again.
How many brand spak'n new Boeing aircraft can you identify here?
There are a lot of Boeing 787 Dreamliners sitting outside waiting for parts. There are so many, that Boeing is having to get creative with where they are parking the aircraft. There are now three 787 Dreamliners parked next to the Future of Flight and two more outside the Boeing hangars. The three by the Future of Flight are two Royal Air Maroc Dreamliners and one JAL. By the hangars is a JAL and one all white 787 (photo).
That's a lot of eye candy at Boeing's fuel dock
The Dreamliners aren’t the only thing overly impressive on this trip. There were also five aircraft sitting at the Boeing fuel dock. Two Dreamlifters, one Boeing 747-8, one Boeing 777 for V Australia and one Boeing 767 for JAL.
It is a stare off between Boeing 747-8's
On the east side are quite a few new Boeing 747-8s. The British Airways World Cargo 747 is still sitting with just a blue belly as it was a few weeks back. There is also a nice collection of Boeing 747-8F in Korean Air Cargo and Cathay Pacific liveries. There was also one that just has the rudder painted and is a Nippon Cargo Airlines 747-8F (photo).
Visiting Paine Field is always an awesome experience, especially when it is sunny. I feel very lucky to live just a quick 15 minute drive from one of the most interesting airports in the world.
Aerial view of the DreamLifter and Future of Flight taken by Paine Field
Paine Field is in the process of building additional parking spots next to the Future of Flight. The hope is Boeing 787 Dreamliners will one day be parked there, but for a little over a week, a Boeing DreamLifter has been making it home. If you are in the Seattle area, this gives you a great opportunity to pretty close to a DreamLifter.
This photo was taken from the sky by the Paine Field Airport. Check out the shadow that the DreamLifter puts on the ground (zoomed in photo), it is quite impressive, just like the plane itself.
More:
* Larger version of image above
* Photos I took of the DreamLifter yesterday while at Paine Field
Boeing 787 Dreamliner ZA002 about to take off from KPAE
Today I got the opportunity to watch the second Boeing 787 Dreamliner (ZA002) take off from Paine Field in Everett, WA from Future of Flight’s Strato Deck. ZA002 had to come back north to Everett due to debris found in the fuel tank. She has been all fixed up and is ready to continue her test flights.
FlightAware.com is showing the 787 will be inflight for about five and a half hours. Currently the Dreamliner is flying down the Oregon coast with some pretty amazing views (I hope a Boeing chase plane is taking photos).
I got a few videos, but won’t be able to get them online until later this evening. Until then I have a few photos to share. Be sure to check out the Dreamlifter in the background, a Boeing 777 landing with Mt Baker in the background, and the unusual sunny day we have in Seattle today.
I also got a video of that Boeing 777 landing with the Boeing 787 waiting to takeoff, but until I get that video up, you can enjoy a photo I got from my phone. (UPDATE: haha, ok it wasn’t me who took the picture with the phone, I was video taping. My very good friend Temo took the picture for me on my phone [normally I am doing both at the same time]. Thanks Temo!)