by Lufthansa Flyer | Apr 14, 2015 | D-ABYT, Featured, Lufthansa |
Lufthansa’s retro 747-8i, soon to be dubbed ‘Cologne’, enters service on April 16 when she departs from Frankfurt and heads for Chicago.
D-ABYT, or ‘Yankee Tango’ will be operating on flight LH430 from Frankfurt and LH431 from Chicago.
D-ABYT prepares for her first ever flight, a B1 test flight at Paine Field.
As always, last minute changes can happen to aircraft assignments, so I’ll provide an update if that changes.
‘YT’ was delivered to Lufthansa on March 25 and was set to be introduced to the public at an event in Frankfurt tomorrow celebrating LH’s 60th Anniversary. However, due to the Germanwings tragedy, the event was cancelled for obvious reasons.
If you’re any bit of an ‘Avgeek’, come back to the website on Monday for some interesting, once in a lifetime content from March 25th……..
Come back Monday for the ‘Rest Of The Story’
by Lufthansa Flyer | Apr 1, 2015 | D-ABYT, Featured, Lufthansa |
Back in February of this year, I had the opportunity to be at Paine Field in Washington to witness the first flight of Lufthansa’s D-ABYT (click here for gallery). This 747-8i is particularly special because it sports a ‘Retro’ livery similar to the livery that Lufthansa’s 747s carried in the 70s and 80s.
D-ABYT is the penultimate 747 that will join the Lufthansa fleet and for Airliner Enthusiasts its marks the beginning of the end of the 747 at large. Orders and deliveries are winding down as carriers prepare for Boeing 777x in the coming years.
To mark this special moment in Lufthansa’s fleet history, I decided to take my best photos of ‘YT’, who will be nicknamed ‘Cologne’, and put together a calendar highlighting her first flight. A big thanks goes to KKFlyer who took care of the layout and publishing of the calendar.
We ran a small batch of these calendars that will share with some of my friends within Lufthansa but I did pull one aside to give away.
So, if you would like a chance to win this calendar, simply leave a comment to this post which will act as your entry (only one entry per person please). I’ll keep the entry period open until midnight (EDT) on Sunday, April 3. Open to anyone, anywhere!
My next project will be a calendar dedicated to the entire Lufthansa 747-8i fleet, so look for that one in the coming weeks. If interest is strong, we may order enough so that we can sell a few as well.
Here is a peek at the calendar. We set it up so it starts with April 2015 and goes through March 2016.
The photos below do not do it justice since it was they were taken with a smart phone!
Thanks and good luck!
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 16, 2015 | Featured, Fleet Update, Lufthansa, Photography, Plane Spotting |
After having a few hours during my flights home yesterday I finally had a chance to screen through all of my 532 photos of D-ABYT. During this process I found a few more photos that I think you’ll enjoy.
If you haven’t seen my previous posts showing D-ABYT’s first taxi test and test flight, you can get caught up here:
Part 1: Taxi Test and Inaugural Flight
Part 2: D-ABYT Returns From Inaugural Flight
Entering the runway for taxi test.
Applying brakes during taxi test
Full stop – the brakes work!
Into the clouds….
Gear retract
Away for a B1 test flight….
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 15, 2015 | Featured, Lufthansa, Photography, Plane Spotting |
As promised, here are a few photos that capture the moments soon after ‘YT’ returned from a successful inaugural flight at Paine Field today. With the way the winds were blowing she landed from the South while I was positioned at the north end of the runway about 9,200 feet from her touchdown, so apologies in advance for not having the best landing photos.
However, I think these photos show off her fantastic livery. Everyone that I spoke to today about her thought she was a beauty. As it stands now, we’ll see her head to Frankfurt on or about March 13. In the mean time she’ll take a few more test flights here before being certified for delivery.
If you missed my earlier post showing her departure, you can get caught up here and here.
First ever landing for YT – 9200 feet away!
Landing roll out……
Beautiful in the afternoon light
Leaving the runway
Taxiing back for a braking test
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 14, 2015 | Featured, History, Lufthansa, Photography, Plane Spotting |
After finally being painted in a beautiful tribute livery and released to the flight line, D-ABYT finally took to the skies today for her inaugural flight, also known in Boeing-speak as a B1 flight.
She took off early in the afternoon after a 3 hour weather delay at Paine Field and is due back later today.
Next up is a B2 flight which will be followed up by a C1 (Customer) flight and ultimately delivery to Lufthansa on or about March 13. She will no doubt be the guest of honor when Lufthansa celebrates its 60th Anniversary in mid-April.
So for now, enjoy the images of our favorite new Queen of the Skies! I’ll be back later after she lands.
For additional photos of her, please click here and here for my other related posts.
Preparing for taxi test
High speed taxi test completed successfully.
Moments after takeoff from Paine Field
