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for airplane lovers

Old Soviet I-16 Fighter. Very short range, only had 30-60 mins flight time. This one is still a flyer. Here it's in Riverside, but shortly after this picture was taken, was flown (in a lot of short hops) to it's home in Midland Texas.
 

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We missed that. We went on Sunday and my neck injuries got to barking and we had to leave before the Thunderbirds started. Hopefully, this year will be better. But, in any case it sounds like a good story. What happened?

The jumpmasters from the C-130Js got the drop point wrong and half the paratroopers landed in the trees...

http://kitup.military.com/2010/10/thanks-for-nothing-jumpmaster.html

Since this is a minor thread hijack here's a cool plane pic:

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Better view of the flag. We kept flags in the map cases and presented them to people on the road. These images were taken while cross-country from Boston to Nellis AFB.

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#2 on the boom.

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Homeward bound.

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#6 Headed for the barn.

Sorry folks, got a bit carried away with the scanner today.
 
Two quick stories you guys will get a kick out of...

1. The B-1 inverted pic I posted was from deployment to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 2001, right after 9/11. The guy who was flying did a high speed pass and roll across the runway, as a mini airshow and way of saying thanks to all the hardworking maintainers and loaders who were busting their asses pulling 12-16 hour shifts daily to make the combat sorties happen. Needless to say, they all loved it, but the O-6s grounded the guy for a week or so (and he was in a position of authority in the squadron).

2. For the past year at work, I sat 6 feet from a fellow officer who was the opposing solo on the the thunderbirds. She has many, many awesome pics like the ones raptor posted, but the best part was that we were classmates at the Academy 14 years ago.

another obligatory cool pic... coming up to the tanker over the indian ocean.

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Kpae

I live not far from the south end of RWY 16R/34L at KPAE (Paine Field) in Everett, WA. This is the home of Boeing's "double-aisle" aircraft manufacturing (747/767/777/787). We always see interesting and unusual aircraft flying overhead.

A few weeks ago, we decided to drive around Paine Field and see what we could see. As the father of a six year old, looking at airplanes is a great way to kill a weekend afternoon!

Boeing uses these modified 747s (called "Dreamlifters") to transport sections of the 787 to Everett for final assembly. Parts of the 787 are made in Japan, South Korea, Wichita, Kansas, Charleston, South Carolina, France, Italy, and India.
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Boeing must obtain FAA approval before they can deliver these 747-800 freighters to their carriers. Once Boeing completes their test flight program and the FAA signs off, these brand new aircraft will be delivered to their new owners.
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These are the new 747-800 "Intercontinentals" that Boeing is currently test-flying in order to obtain certification. They are developing passenger and freighter versions, but they have way more orders for freighters than they do for the passenger version.
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I don't know the story behind the B-52 currently parked on the tarmac.
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Mothballed airliners (like this 767) have the engines replaced with weights so that the airframe is properly stressed at all times.
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While we were looking around, an unpainted 737-NG was doing touch-and-go landings.
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Billionaire Paul Allen has a large hanger at Paine Field where he keeps the WWII aircraft he's collected. All of his aircraft in the "Flying Heritage Collection" are operational, and the museum has "flight days" where observers can watch these museum pieces take to the air. We'll be visiting a few of those this summer, and I'll post the photos I take.
 
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Nice pics of Paine Field and some of Boeing's biggest...watching those Dreamlifters lumber down the runway is sort of interesting. As in, "is that monster EVER going to get airborne?"

Mr. Allen's collection is small compared to some museums, but it is very high quality. I never expected to ever see an Me 163 Komet anywhere but on cable TV. Well worth the trip to this exhibit for visitors to Seattle area.

Current schedule includes a "Luftwaffe Day" on August 6 with the intent to fly a Storch, a Me 109, and a Focke-Wulf 190.

Cheers!
 
Nice pics of Paine Field and some of Boeing's biggest...watching those Dreamlifters lumber down the runway is sort of interesting. As in, "is that monster EVER going to get airborne?"

Mr. Allen's collection is small compared to some museums, but it is very high quality. I never expected to ever see an Me 163 Komet anywhere but on cable TV. Well worth the trip to this exhibit for visitors to Seattle area.

Current schedule includes a "Luftwaffe Day" on August 6 with the intent to fly a Storch, a Me 109, and a Focke-Wulf 190.

Cheers!

As my post mentioned, we live about 10 miles south of Paine Field. When the wind is blowing from the north, most traffic to KPAE flies overhead - including the Dreamlifters. While we see plenty of large aircraft in the skies overhead - including lots of the new 747-800s - there is no doubt when a Dreamlifter is overhead. They are much louder than any other aircraft that routinely visits Paine Field - I'll presume because of their need to keep the engines at a relatively higher thrust to overcome all that aerodynamic drag. They are a very impressive sight flying low and slow on final approach.
 
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A DC-4 that stopped overnight that's headed for Florida and will be standing by for oil dispersant duty. This aircraft participated in the Berlin air lift according to the pilot.
 
Yankee Air Museum

Each year the Yankee Air Museum hosts a "Thunder over Michigan" event in July -- this year it's the 23rd and 24th -- with a range of aircraft from WWII to modern era. This aircraft was a "guest" at the event a few years back. I also had the pleasure to meet Guenther Rall who was one of Germany's highest scoring aces of WWII.

Kent
 

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Long Ago....

I used to be the Crew Chief of this aircraft.....
 

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I used to repair those, Wurtsmith AFB Michigan and U-Tapao AFB Thailand. Gosh I am getting old, I forgot how to spell U-Tapao.

My mom (and her Masters in Art) was briefly a draftsperson for Boeing in the 1950's. Her responsibility was drawing up the designs of the ailerons for the KC-135.

Soon enough we'll see the B767 tankers rolling off the Paine Field assembly line, heading out to replace the KC-135s.
 
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