For those who like Aircraft pictures

[jjb1970]

6 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Isn't it really a stretched DC-9?

 

In the case of the 717 I think it may be a direct descendant of the original DC-9 size or even a shrink as it was smaller than the MD-90 and most of the MD-8X series. I liked the 717, well I liked all of the DC-9 family. 

[jjb1970]

Some Cathay Pacific activity in Hong Kong this week. The skybridge is a nice place for photographs.

 

[jjb1970]

Some non-CX activity.

 

[Ron Ron Ron]

43 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Isn't it really a stretched DC-9?

 

Decended, or evolved from the original DC9 family, via the MD80 and MD90 series.

The 717 moniker replaced the MD95 name, following Boeing's take over of the bankrupt McDonnell Douglas corporation.

 

 

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[Erichill16]

Just having coffee and looking out of the window.

[Erichill16]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

 

One of my pet hates is when aerospace companies apply their own moniker to old designs of companies they bought over the years.

What about the Red Bull sponsored war birds, they are truly an abomination.
 

[jjb1970]

My ride back to Singapore, the ubiquitous SQ A350. I always find the orange stripe on their livery makes a much bigger difference than might be expected for such a small touch.

 

[Erichill16]

My next flight, complete with panda eyes.

[jjb1970]

This is another shot which shows what we take for granted these days, a very early morning shot in hours of darkness at Changi last weekend waiting for my flight to HK (I didn't fly in a 777, it was an A350, so not this aircraft). At one time this would have needed a tripod for a time exposure, maybe helped by a fast film, this is a handheld shot using my phone. The night performance of camera phones is remarkable for those of us who remember film days and my mirrorless can't get near my phone at night.

 

[Erichill16]

My pictures tonight were taken with a phone. Ive got a DSLR in my bag but its not worth getting it out. (Especially with the lens l’ve got attached to it.)

[Erichill16]

Last one for today. Pity about pylon but one my favourite types.

[J. S. Bach]

4 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

My next flight, complete with panda eyes.

Still looks more like a racoon to me. 😉

[newbryford]

Not the best pic from my hotel room, but included for a distant memory.

 

This is Airbus A330-343(P2F) G-EODS about to depart on a Birmingham-Zhengzhou service.

 

 

 

 

 

I was last in Zhengzhou 33 years ago.....

 

One day I'll find my print of the surreptitious pic of some mothballed Chinese MiGs I took walking out to our plane at Zhengzhou.

Sat next to me on that flight was an ex-Chinese air force bomber navigator who was retraining on B737s and we had conversation regarding the use of the words would and could as he was also learning English as part of his ongoing education.

One of those memories that will always remain with me.

[jjb1970]

I remember an evening in Liuzhou sometime around the late 90's, every few minutes pairs of PLAAF J7 fighters (Chinese built derivative of the MiG21) were flying over at low level and doing manoeuvres. The noise was deafening, incredible. The PLAAF clearly didn't have to worry about noise abatement. 

[Jeff Smith]

The MD88 had serious engine noise problems - some airlines found it difficult to sell the last few rows by the engines.  The MD90 and MD95 probably shared much of the structure of the MD88 and legacy DC9 but have higher by-pass (quieter) engines plus glass cockpits.  They all retained the centre rear air stairs.

[jjb1970]

That was an issue on all of the aft engined jets of the era I think. I experienced it in the BAC111, Trident and 727. Though it was great further forward.

[jjb1970]

A few side on views of Boeing 777's arriving into Changi in quite nice weather this week, coming in from the South West which goes over the great anchorages and can give a view of the city in nice weather as opposed to the approach from the North East which goes over Changi beach.

 

[jjb1970]

Some 787's arriving>

 

[jjb1970]

A few A350's.

 

[jjb1970]

Some smaller birds.

 

[jjb1970]

This one illustrates how what is the mundane and common to many is the rare and exotic to others. Air Canada is a common sight in many airports, for example at Heathrow they usually have a few aircraft dotted around with multiple flights every day. On the other hand they have not flown to Singapore for many years so when I saw this I also did a fist pump. I'm not sure whether it was flying in for engineering work, operating on lease to someone else or a preparation flight for their start of flights to Singapore next year.

 

[Jeff Smith]

I think the term is route proving......expensive though!

[PMP]

55 minutes ago, Jeff Smith said:

I think the term is route proving......expensive though!

‘Route proving’ is more to do with certification criteria to ensure a type is suitable to operate routes and involves range/navigation testing, it’s often done in conjunction with customers(airlines) prior to the types introduction to service.
A ’proving’ flight/s is the airline specific equivalent where an airline will test the actual route with typical loads and check all aspects of the flight, the technical data including route structure, ground handling teams, airport infrastructure and anything likely to affect the normal operations on the specific route. These days the ‘Route Proving’ at certification testing is more than accurate enough in data capture, to allow airline commercial teams to validate a route without test flying it. The ultimate test of course being does the route sell when released.

[J. S. Bach]

9 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Some smaller birds.

 

That has to be an expensive paint job. Unless it is done with some kind of wrap, although I doubt it. If it came off in flight, there would be (most likely) major problems.

 

 

 

That has to be an expensive paint job. Unless it is done with some kind of wrap, although I doubt it. If it came off in flight, there would be (most likely) major problems.

 

Edited November 30, 2023 by J. S. Bach
to change the formatting of the post

[jjb1970]

That's an interesting point, I'd always assumed that these complex liveries relied on some sort of decal, using paint for base colours but with decals for the difficult bits but that was only an assumption, do the aviation experts we have here know? Quite often you see airliners with patches which look like the result of removed decals, different aging of the paint.

 

Batik is unusual as a full service carrier which is an offshoot of an LCC, Lion Air. Usually it goes the other way with a full service carrier creating an LCC. They seem to serve the Singapore - Indonesia routes with Batik, while Thai Lion (their Thai subsidiary) operate other routes. Some of the SE Asian LCCs now have quite complex structures with subsidiaries in different countries, such as Air Asia, Vietjet and Lion so it can be confusing which is operating what. Usually the liveries seem to be common, with just an additional bit in the title or a national flag to separate them.

 

On Batik, that's one of the national symbols of Indonesia, a textile pattern (it's like tartan in Scotland), I have batik shirts bought for me by Mrs JJB which I very rarely wear as they're a bit loud for me (think Hawaiian shirt but with the sort of pattern on the 737 tail). On the other hand batik shirts are fine as formal and business attire in Indonesia if you don't like regular shirts. The Indonesian air market is huge and Singapore - Jakarta is one of the 'big three' routes for Singapore (the others being KL and Bangkok), with a very intensive service by multiple carriers.