Air New Zealand's Airbus A320-232 ZK-OAB wearing the airline's very smart 'All Blacks' scheme, departs Queenstown Airport with its wonderful backdrop and in fantastic early evening light.
The small green at Myrtle Avenue near Hatton Cross Underground Station due to the frequency and variety, has to be one of the best spotting locations in the world when arrivals are on to 27L at London-Heathrow. The Sun is behind you for most of the day too. The only downside is that because it's a small area, many shots look very similar. I try to capture some of the surroundings by not zooming in too much, especially when there is a nice cloud backdrop as well. Airbus A380-800 9V-SKA of Singapore Airlines on approach to 27L on 25th May 2013. This airframe was broken up in January 2020 after just 13.7 years of commercial service.
Perhaps the best retro scheme ever, the iconic BOAC Gold Speedbird liveried 747 to mark the 100th Anniversary of the forerunners of British Airways. BA Boeing 747-436 G-BYGC is being prepared for a flight on 22nd August 2019. This shot was taken from sister ship G-BYGD on its was to New York. I had of course hoped I may travel on the retro jet but at least I got a photo of it in its natural environment. Sadly, both have now been scrapped with some even suggesting that in view of the current shortage of long-haul airliners, BA should have kept it's younger G-BYG- 747's for a little while longer.
One of the final operators of the long-serving DC-10 was DAS Air albeit in a cargo capacity. This shot of DC10 Series 30F 5X-JOS was taken on 9th June 2006 not long before DC-10 flights in general started to diminish considerably.
Das Air Cargo DC-10 Series 30F 5X-JOS about to touch down on Runway 08R at London-Gatwick on 9th June 2006 not long before DC-10 flights in general started to diminish considerably.
Aer Lingus Airbus A320-214 EI-DVM appears to have worn its retro scheme since entry to service during March 2011. Seen here on taxi to a runway at Amsterdam-Schiphol on 22nd July 2014.
This must have been one of the last passenger carrying DC-10 arrivals at Gatwick and captures Northwest Airlines DC-10-30ER N240NW arriving on 9th June 2006. Most Northwest flights to Gatwick had transferred over to A330's by this time and this would have been one of the few Northwest DC-10's to appear in the final livery of the airline before its merger with Delta Airlines. Northwest along with Japan Airlines was unusual in originally ordering 22 of the -40 version of the DC-10 powered by Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines rather than the more usual General Electric CF-6 units of the -30 series. Northwest later acquired 24 DC-10-30's with N240NW being the last (l/n 438) and one of only three -30ER models to be delivered to Northwest and presumably the reason why it soldiered on for a little while longer, before leaving the fleet and being transferred to Omni Air on 21st December 2006.
French Air Force (Armée de l'air) Dassault-Breguet Rafale B 30-SO stops briefly with 3 other Rafales in front of the gathered photographers, after returning from a sortie during NATO Exercise Ramstein Flag 2024 hosted at Andravida Air Base near Patras in Greece.
A rare flying appearance trailing its hose and drogue refuelling lines by a Canadian Armed Forces Airbus CC-150 Polaris at the excellent Exercise Ramstein Flag 2024 Spotters Day event on 8th October 2024.
Due to heavy traffic in the circuit, JASDF F-4EJ Kai Phantom II from 302 Hikotai trails its drag chute as it lands back on the civilian runway at Ibaraki Airport. The photo was taken on 4th April 2012 during heightened tensions with North Korea caused by their ballistic missile tests. Consequently, the adjoining Hyakuri Air Base was on high-alert with intensive operations including night ops.
McDonnell-Douglas DC9 series 32 YU-AJM of JAT Yugoslav Airlines on taxi to the runway at Manston Airport. Scan from a Kodachrome 64 slide taken using a Pentax SFXn SLR fitted with a manual focus Sigma 400mm prime lens.
