Special Chartered Aircraft in Phoenix

Phoenix Sky Harbor airport is a hub for US Airways (after its purchase by America West) and Southwest Airlines. Because those are the primary users of the airport - the majority of the aircraft that go in are Boeing 737's and Airbus A318/A319/A321's. So aside from the daily British Airways flight from London (a Boeing 747), or the UPS or FedEx cargo planes (767 and MD-11 respectively), the opportunities to plane watch get pretty boring pretty quickly.

A friend found out that an Air China Boeing 747 was going to be coming into Phoenix over the Labor Day weekend. It was going to arrive on Sunday, fly up and back to the Grand Canyon on Monday, and then depart on Tuesday. So trying to capture a picture of this jumbo coming in and out of Phoenix, became a 'Photocall' for the aviation photography group I am part of.

The embedded link below goes to a slideshow of my pictures from both the arrival on Sunday and then the departure up to the Grand Canyon on Sunday (more details below the slideshow link).



During a pre-arrival drive through of the airport - it looked like it was going to be something more than just a normal charter. A reception tent was set-up out on the ramp - and the Police were out and just waiting.

Then there was the flight path this plane had been taking. It started in Beijing - and flew to Toronto (fuel stop), and then on to Havana (Cuba). From there it went to Nassau (Bahamas) for three days before flying to Phoenix.

One of the other photographers finally found a story on-line about this trip - on a Chinese web site (local press didn't have a clue). It was the Chinese equivalent to the US Speaker of the House - on a fact finding tour of the Americas.

Which would explain the next stop the plane made after leaving Phoenix - Andrews Air Force Base, outside of Washington, DC. [for those of you who don't know - Andrews Air Force Base is the home to another rather famous Boeing 747 - Air Force One].

Most Viewed Pictures for August 2009

Most Viewed Pictures for August 2009, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

A mix of old and new pictures highlight the most viewed pictures for August 2009.

Maybe it is time to upgrade to Blu-Ray

Amazon just announced the release date for the entire "Prisoner" series on Blu-Ray DVD (scheduled for release at the end of October).

Will the Dreamliner (787) ever fly?

Boeing Dreamliner, originally uploaded by ojour.

It has been over 2 years since Boeing rolled out their newest, revolutionary airliner - the 787 Dreamliner.

This plane is revolutionary in that instead of being constructed of aluminum - most of the plane is carbon fiber. This makes the plane lighter and means it can go farther on a load of fuel.

But the design and assembly of this plane has not been without its issues. Boeing has outsourced the major assemblies of this plane to other, foreign manufacturers - and just performs final assembly at the Boeing Everett plant (in an attempt to speed production, and lower Boeing's own labor costs).

They even retrofitted a set of 747's - the Dreamlifter - to shuttle Dreamliner pieces from manufacturer site to Everett.

The assembly issues seem to be behind them now - but everyone is still waiting for the plane's first flight (since that's what airplanes are supposed to do - FLY). But in late July - Boeing announced that the first flight was delayed again - this time for a structural/design issue where the wings join the fuselage/body and did not give a new estimated date for the first flight.

A week later - the Seattle Times published a story saying that this structural/design issue was worse than was being reported, and had occurred at an earlier point in the stress test.

There are normally challenges that face any new design - but more so in this case because of the new materials being used. And you know its bad - when the current poll on FlightGlobal asks which might fly first - the 787 - or a Pig.

Most viewed pictures for July 2009

Most viewed pictures for July 2009, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

One of the things I do each day as part of my Flickr addiction - is look to see which pictures are attracting peoples attention.

Considering the majority of my pictures are of airplanes - it isn't any surprise that the most viewed pictures are of them. But what is sometimes surprising - is when an 'ancient' picture - like the JSF prototype at the Smithsonian (UHC @ Dulles, VA) - from 5+ years ago - gets high views.

Even more surprising - is when something completely outside the aviation environment gets a lot of views. Like the Ringling Bros Circus clown. But I think that was due to the fact that the clown's father is on Flickr too - so I am pretty sure the picture has gotten back to her.

Editor wanted for BBC web site

BBC published a story this morning that the proposed (UK) National ID card had been unveiled, and provided a shot of the sample - w/ each field labelled.

Obviously - no one actually looked at the picture and matched the field description with the actual numbered call outs.

Compare my reading of the call outs and the card (below) to what the BBC published;

1. Symbol meaning a chip is embedded in the card
2. National Identity Registration Number
3. Citizenship. (was #4)
4. Place of birth (was #6)
5. Signature - digitally embedded
   
6. Date of Card issue and date it becomes invalid (was #3)
7. Photo taken to biometric standards
8. Biometric chip holds fingerprint record
9. Swipe zone. Information which can be automatically read by computer

HA! - since I first read the story - the BBC went back and updated the graphic to have the correct labels. Wonder how many complaints/comments they got over it.

Movie Poster QR Code

Movie Poster QR Code, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

I took my daughter to see the Disney/Pixar movie "Up" yesterday and on the way out of the theater there was this green movie poster w/ a large QR code, a date (9-9-09) and a rating (PG-13) on it.

I took a picture of it w/ my Blackberry (obviously) to see what this movie was for. I wasn't able to find a QR decoder for my model of Blackberry - so it had to wait until I got on-line this morning. I uploaded the picture to ZXing's Decoder and got the following URL;

http://9.msite.tv/qr1

After making sure my security software was up to date - I went ahead and went to the URL. Turns out this goes to an exclusive trailer for Tim Burton's new animated movie "9".