Boeing 747

[mm505]

DAL in NW colors departing ATL.

[mm505]

Only to be followed by NW flight in DAL colors!

[mm505]

BAW's cargo flight arriving ATL from England.  Don't see this guy here very often.

[demar727]

rarrrrrre catch at PHL

[ironfan]

One of two NW742's to come into March today from Kadena (via ANC).

[Dazz]

 
KLAX

[Dazz]

One gray and stormy day in HKG, the light was rubbish, so I got a little arty on it, kinda like the pencil drawing effect.

[Midnight Storm]

Wow, there are some colorful birds in this thread. 

[vector1771 (www.hangar71.com)]

Air China's dawn departure out of PDX...

[mycole]

Do you ever sleep, Ty?

[Dazz]

  A fine(ish) day in HKG for the first time in months! And one of "Connie's Classics"

[Bernardo Malfitano]

I know I haven't posted on FenceCheck for a long time. I've been mad busy with work, friends, and other things. And even at the few airshows I did go to, I don't think I got any pictures that were wildly better than anyone else's. But over the winter I'll go over them again and pick some good ones and post them in their respective threads. (But I don't expect to have time to do this until the Holidays...)

ANYWAYS... This evening I did get some cool shots that I am confident nobody else got, since I was the only person with a long lens in sight.

The very first 747-8, the new derivative of the 747, incorporating a lot of 787 technologies; quieter, more fuel-efficient, and stretched. (Yes, stretched! From the very first 747 to the last 747-400, they were all built the exact same length (except for the little SPs of course). The new "Dash 8" is a little longer). It just left the factory for the first time. I thought that was pretty exciting. The queen of the skies, reinvented.

Here it is being pulled out of the world's largest building.

[Bernardo Malfitano]

Some cool nose-on shots.

And look at that big crowd!

[Bernardo Malfitano]

Leaving the factory and going to the paint hangar:

[Bernardo Malfitano]

Meanwhile a younger cousin watches from across the street  

I must say that I do resent Boeing for making me stand outside on the street to take these pictures. They have a strict no-photo policy on Boeing property so that information is not leaked, but I can't imagine taking any pictures from INSIDE the factory that would show more of the factory than pictures like these do. Despite the fact that pictures taken from inside the fence wouldn't really show more than pictures taken outside the fence, they make us go outside the fence. Oh well.

To be honest, though, this doesn't come anywhere close to spoiling the moment. It was amazing to watch this graceful behemoth emerge from the world's largest building, so many unprecedented feats of engineering depending on each other than you can't begin to grasp it. Getting to watch something like this in the making, and to be a small part of it, makes all those years of studying and boring work more than worthwhile. When I walk through this factory, I still feel that I have reached the Promised Land