WA-Boom!

Who’s that hiding behind a building?

Let’s take a closer look.

Oops.  It may have gotten away.

There it is.  My.  It looks like a 747 over Seattle. That’s not so unusual.

But which 747?  Why, it’s Air Force 1.

 

Since I grew up in NYC, the announcement that the President is visiting results not in excitement, but in eye rolling.  The traffic hassles of dignitaries can be real pain.  But it doesn't happen all that often in Seattle, so folks will line the street, hoping to catch a glimpse of the President. And they did just that on 2010-08-17.

The day was not without its adventure.  At about 1:50 in the afternoon, I heard what sounded like two loud explosions in the city.  I saw no smoke out the windows, and though it might have just been a truck.  But then Twitter burst with activity.  About 15 minutes later, the consensus emerged on line that the sounds were sonic booms.  More details here.

Apparently, while the President was at an event, someone in a float plane (who didn’t check airspace restrictions prior to taking off) violated the Seattle airspace restrictions.  Two fighter jets took off from Portland, and zipped up to Seattle at near maximum speed to intercept the potential threat.  It turned out to be nothing, but it certainly added some extra excitement to the day.

At the end of the day, the President took off from BFI, heading north out over Seattle.  The plane turned right over the Green lake area (I think) and headed east to Ohio.

I got a few pictures of the aircraft through what I later realized was a really dirty lens.  The hazy skies and thin clouds also made photography challenging.

Regardless of who the primary passenger is as any given time, I’ve always found Air Force 1 to be one of the most beautiful birds to ply the skies.

747-800

Boeing's 787 has been getting all the attention in recent months.  It's a revolutionary new aircraft that I can't wait to fly in.  But it's not the only new one from Boeing.

Monday was the first flight for Boeing new 747-800 aircraft.  Most of the orders are for the cargo version, though a few carriers ordered the passenger version, too.  It is Boeing's largest aircraft every and builds on the historic success of the 747-400 and new technologies borrowed from the 787.

The Airbus A380 may hold more people, but it can't touch the 747-800 in style.  Despite all the problems Boeing has had with delays and unions, they still make the world's most beautiful aircraft.

You can read more about the flight, and see more pictures, at the Seattle PI.

For detailed information about the aircraft and test program, check out the Boeing site.