For those who like Aircraft pictures

[Jeff Smith]

In the seventies sign writers would use tracings and templates to put company logos on corporate aircraft but that fell out of favour, probably for security reasons.  In the Delta paint hanger a lot of masking was used......  Painting aircraft is a bit controversial as it adds considerable weight and can hide cracks.

[jjb1970]

Some smaller Airbus jets. My favourite A319/20/21 visitors are Vietnam AL, but their A321's are a nightmare to photograph as for some reason the blue is very sensitive to light and tends to look either too dark or too turquoise depending on whether it is a bright or dull day.

 

[jjb1970]

The biggest arrival of the afternoon, sadly I was too late for the morning 747F and SQ A380 arrivals and had to leave too early for the late afternoon 747F and SQ and Qantas A380 flights. I have a sort of mixed opinion of the A380, I think it is an ugly aircraft but it has presence and is an impressive sight.

 

[Jeff Smith]

I recently watched a strange video on YouTube which kept talking about the A390 but showed extensive footage of A380s in service with several airlines......it was either a spoof or a very mis-guided production.....

[PMP]

13 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

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.

 

Many of the complex liveries are vinyl wraps these days. There’s two big factors, weight (as per @Jeff Smithabive) and time to apply them means operating cost savings and speed to apply and remove them. 

 

Also large numbers of airframes are owned by lessors, and wraps mean livery changes are easy and cost effective if the airframe moves to a different user, like the A320 equivalent of white van man you see in Europe. This is why you see outline patches on some aircraft, they have potentially changed operators, or a new corporate design modification is needed, eg when Thompson’s changed to TUi.

https://www.larchfield-aerospace.com
 

Removing paint is challenging in environmental terms and can have unexpected consequences. US Air absorbed some BAe146’s into their fleet from another operator exPSA IIRC. US air famously have a natural metal finish on the fuselage, and they set about cutting the paint back with abrasive to return the fuselages to natural metal. It got messy literally as some cutting back went too far, and some rivet heads and skin panel patches were needed to repair the ‘polishing’ see extract below from a repair design engineer:

Inspection Service Bulletin for the affected airframes, this imposed regular inspections on various panels. The issue was not just about the rivet heads, it was also areas of skin panels had been reduced in thickness by the "over-enthusiastic" polishing.

I know some weird #### from my time in the industry…

[jjb1970]

11 hours ago, Jeff Smith said:

I recently watched a strange video on YouTube which kept talking about the A390 but showed extensive footage of A380s in service with several airlines......it was either a spoof or a very mis-guided production.....

 

Are KR getting into aircraft now? 🤣🤣

[monkeysarefun]

At the opposite end of the  aeronautical spectrum, I stopped off at the local airport on the way back from the shops to check out the gliders because the weather was too nice to go home and waste it cutting the grass etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Texan T6 which does "Warbird" joyflights over the Blue Mountains.

 

[jjb1970]

My favourite heavy metal in one of my favourite liveries at Changi yesterday. I love the 747, Singapore is lucky in that 747-400F and 747-8F freighters are still regular visitors with multiple arrivals and departures (unfortunately many arrive and depart at night) and passenger 747-8I flights from Lufthansa and Korean but overall I don't see that many 747's any more. A nice part of Beijing Capital is you still see Air China 747-400 and 747-8I passenger aircraft as well as various freighters. There's a Thai 747-400 graveyard which is a real dismal sight. Even at age 53 I still get a thrill when I see one of these, especially in this livery.

 

[jjb1970]

Two 777's operated for DHL by different airlines, Singapore AL and Aerologic. I guess it may say something about the brand power of Singapore AL that the 777F's they operate with DHL have a hybrid livery when other airlines operating for DHL paint their aircraft in full DHL colours.

 

[jjb1970]

A couple of passenger A330's and a P2F A330F (which despite the name carries an Irish registration). I like the A330, it seems to be the poor relation of the A350 in Airbus marketing these days despite the A330NEO having been a good seller (well the long one, the short fuselage version has been a complete flop). I'm guessing the steady increase in Garuda Singapore - Jakarta flights switching from 737-800 to A330 is a positive sign for passenger numbers.

 

[jjb1970]

Another one of those aircraft which for many airline enthusiasts is probably painfully common and mundane but which is always a nice sight here, a UAL 787. UAL serves Singapore from San Francisco, it's a long flight (18 hours) and has the honour of being flight UA1. 

 

[jjb1970]

Some LCC Airbus A32x, Citilink is the LCC offshoot of Garuda, the livery is clearly derived from their parent with green substituting for blue. Pacific Airlines is a Vietnamese LCC which was formerly Jetstar Pacific, their aircraft are still in Jetstar silver with just the branding removed. Cebu is a Philippines carrier with a rather colourful livery. This is a special livery Vietjet 321, though it's not a full livery special. I sometimes use Vietjet to go to Vietnam and they're pretty good. It's an LCC so service is basic, but aircraft are immaculate and it all feels very efficient and much better than some LCCs, pretty much the same as flying Euro routes with airlines like BA, Lufthansa and Air France these days.

 

 

[TheEngineShed]

Timing is everything, in this case sunlight on a stormy day in Arizona.  The first 777 in Cathay Pacific colours, B-HNL after 50,000 flight hours.

[298]

The One Air fleet at Heathrow last week, G-UNET and G-ONEE here are kept busy on an intensive LHR-Hong Kong-Muscat (usually)-LHR circuit so it is rare* to have them in the same place at the same time.  

 

EDIT:

*They are both there now, must be a Monday thing...

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by 298

[woodenhead]

A step back in time from me - had this recommendation on YT last night, it focusses on a single raid on Berlin.

 

[jjb1970]

A little bit of extra variety this week as one of the daily China Eastern flights has been operated by a 787 in the livery of their subsidiary Shanghai Airlines, which is much more attractive than China Eastern (which is one of the most boring airline liveries in the world).

 

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

A little bit of extra variety this week as one of the daily China Eastern flights has been operated by a 787 in the livery of their subsidiary Shanghai Airlines, which is much more attractive than China Eastern (which is one of the most boring airline liveries in the world).

 

When I was flying regularly to and from North East China between 2007 and 2014, Shanghai Airlines was a much more attractive airline than China Eastern in every respect.

[jjb1970]

I have never flown Shanghai AL but in general I find Chinese* carriers to be fine. They tend to lack the polish of Singapore Airlines and their in-flight entertainment isn't the best but I have always found them to be efficient, aircraft to be immaculate and service pretty much average for full service carriers.  And without wanting to sound like a dirty old man their flight attendants all look like they just walked out of a fashion shoot for Vogue or something. 

 

Air China is probably the most interesting airline to me in Singapore after Singapore Airlines,  they fly the 737-800, A320, A321, A330, A350 and 787 to Singapore. China Eastern is interesting too (apart from the boring livery.....) as they fly the 737-800, A319, A320, A330, A350 and 777 to Singapore as well as their cargo operation flying the 777F and 747-400F here. 

 

Another interesting one is Thai, they fly the A320, A330, A350, 777 and 787 to Singapore. 

 

*in this context I mean airlines of the PRC, not the HK and Macau SARs or RoC.

[rob D2]

On 10/12/2023 at 22:15, 298 said:

The One Air fleet at Heathrow last week, G-UNET and G-ONEE here are kept busy on an intensive LHR-Hong Kong-Muscat (usually)-LHR circuit so it is rare* to have them in the same place at the same time.  

 

EDIT:

*They are both there now, must be a Monday thing...

 

Muscat till the summer . Almaty or Astana aren’t great bets weather wise in winter 

Edited December 17, 2023 by rob D2

[jjb1970]

One of the maritime patrol F50's last week, this one is fitted with the Harpoon missile rail on the fuselage side under the wing (though not the missile). Usually the ones I see don't have the launch rail fitted, their main role is general surveillance and monitoring ships (looking for oil discharges etc).

 

[St Enodoc]

On 18/12/2023 at 00:10, jjb1970 said:

I have never flown Shanghai AL but in general I find Chinese* carriers to be fine. They tend to lack the polish of Singapore Airlines and their in-flight entertainment isn't the best but I have always found them to be efficient, aircraft to be immaculate and service pretty much average for full service carriers.  And without wanting to sound like a dirty old man their flight attendants all look like they just walked out of a fashion shoot for Vogue or something.

 

*in this context I mean airlines of the PRC, not the HK and Macau SARs or RoC.

No argument as far as international services are concerned. Domestic is a different story...

[jjb1970]

Some Air China A330's in Beijing Capital this week, in one of them there are two Rossiya Tu214's in the background. The Russian Prime Minister was in Beijing, the was an Il96, three Tu214's and an Il76 on the airfield. The temperature was -11C, bit chilly.

 

[jjb1970]

Unfortunately these are even worse than usual (I'm no photographer) as I had to use digital zooming to reach them and the lighting wasn't great but they may be interesting as they are aircraft of the Russian government VIP airwing, the passenger jets are operated by the the air force and branded as Rossiya (Russia), I think the Il76 is a regular air force example but that's just a guess. 

 

[jjb1970]

A 737, initially this looks like just plain Air China aircraft, but it is Air China Inner Mongolia (a nice change from the old jokes about Outer Mongolia).

 

[wamwig]

This one has had over 2000 'likes' on a FB page so thought I'd put it here as well, it is of course Duxford in 1989 and low 'beat up' during the filming of Memphis Belle.

Edited December 22, 2023 by wamwig