Thanks to @MattCawby & his Paine Field Blog for capturing a glimpse of D-ABYT. Lufthansa’s latest 747-8i sports a retro-livery reminding us of the days of the 747-200s. If I were you, I would follow Matt on twitter – he is the best at bringing the first photos of aircraft as they exit the Boeing factory!
The plane exited the paint hangar earlier this week and is set to take her maiden flights in a few days. Which coincidentally is when I will be there because of Lufthansa’s Cargo 777F delivery.
To facilitate the global effort behind the Boeing 787, Boeing has a fleet of 4 heavily modified 747 aircraft that are used to transport large structural components from Japan & Italy to assembly plants in Everett Washington & Charleston, South Carolina. The fleet is based at the recently completed Dreamlifter Operations Center at Paine Field and is operated under contract by Atlas Air.
Normally, it would take upwards of 30 days for wing structures to travel from Tokyo to Everett by ship but with the Dreamlifter the time is reduced to only 8-12 hours. This allows Boeing to maintain an aggressive 787 manufacturing calendar.
In addition to its signature bulged fuselage design, a unique feature of the Dreamlifter is its swing-tail design that has the tail section of the aircraft swing open like a door on hinges to provide maximum access for loading and unloading of the aircraft.
While I was in Everett last week I was fortunate to witness several Dreamlifter departures and arrivals as well as the bonus of watching a Dreamlifter being loaded with Wing Jigs ahead of a flight to Japan to pick up and return with pairs of 787 wings. During my visit to Everett I had the opportunity to capture the loading process on video which you’ll find below along with a few photos of the Dreamlifter.
I also had the chance to see the Dreamlifter in Anchorage last year so if you would like to see those photos with fantastic mountain backdrops, please visit my Dreamlifter gallery on Aero-Shots.com. You’ll see the Dreamlifter in Anchorage occasionally because it makes a technical stop there when flying between Japan and Charleston.
Yes, this is a bit off topic from my regular posts but based on the requests that I have received for more photos from SCOOT fans, I thought to put together a post dedicated to their first 787’s inaugural flight. Yesterday, I had published a post that included a photo of their new 787, dubbed “Dream Start”, sitting on the ramp in Paine Field which prompted quite a bit of activity on Twitter and in my email.
After yesterday’s completion of a high speed taxi and braking test, the bird was cleared for her inaugural flight. ‘Dream Start’ departed Paine Field to the south, flew along Washington’s coast line past Seattle at which point it turned to the east and arrived in Moses Lake. After departing Moses Lake she headed back to Paine Field where she will take a ‘customer flight’ with officials from Scoot in the coming days and then she she should be delivered to Scoot on or about February 1.
Since I had spent the majority of the day at Paine, I was able to see her depart and arrive. Unfortunately most of this happened early in the morning which resulted in some of the photos being back-lit. Unfortuntately I can’t control the Sun’s position so I’ve learned to accept that some photos will not be as good as others!
Hopefully for you SCOOT fans, this will tide you over until you see the bird arrive in Singapore!
