New Year, New Aircraft (LHR)

Good set.

Matt, you can, of course, change the erroneous Wikipedia entry.

I’ll do that, I too find it a great resource for most aviation related matters. For instance when I’m planning my holidays, if I know what airport I want to fly to I can look it up on Wikipedia to find out what airlines fly there.
Or if I want to know what fleet of aircraft or destination/base list a particular airline or Air Force have, again Wikipedia is my first port of call.
But I do find some of the lesser known entries are rarely kept upto date.

The only 787 that flies into LHR now is that of Qatar Airways. The last LOT 787 charter came in on the 2nd Jan unfortunately, so it’s back to the old 734 from them. But if you are looking, QTR 075 is scheduled to land at 11:05.
United launch 787 service in March, followed by ANA I believe? Although I’m personally waiting for the AA 77W JFK-LHR service coming in Febuary 😎

EDIT: I remember now why I avoid editing Wikipedia, it’s so complex you practically need a degree in IT to understand it. No doubt my edits and references will be in the wrong format and sooner or later some ‘know it all’ will come along and revert it to the original with the incorrect information. That’s usually how it goes.

Matt, you can, of course, change the erroneous Wikipedia entry.

I find Wikipedia a super resource, accepting that it can be wrong sometimes. To that end, I donated some money to it during its recent appeal, and will do so again.

I’m back at work next week and our playground sits under one of the approach paths to Heathrow, so while I’m out on duty, I’ll keep an eye out for the B787.

Amazing, it definitely looked alot smaller last night, it must be deceiving.

Thanks Doors, the Thai livery is great – I think it was one of the first times I saw it up close. It’s a lot ‘shinier’ than some other liveries, I think they must use a similar painting technique to the one Virgin uses?

Thanks Deano, I’m going to surprise some of you now by saying the 787 is larger (dimensionally at least) than the 767.
The standard 767-300ER is 54.9 m long, with a wing span of 47.6 m.
The 787 is 57 m long, with a wing span of 60 m.
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/767family/pf/pf_300prod.html
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/787family/787-8prod.html

Thanks Grey Area. You are totally correct, I was wrong… That’ll teach me for using Wikipedia as a source! Royal Brunei’s been flying into LHR since 1991.
The erroneous source; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Brunei_Airlines_destinations
The correct source; http://www.bruneiair.com/uk/about-royal-brunei/history/

totty I think that’s right, they are alot smaller than you would first suspect. definitely smaller than a 767, and yes I’d say you’re right about them looking broadly similar in size to a 757 apart from a bit fatter.

I think most people find the B787 smaller than they expected. I haven’t seen one yet, but I don’t think they’re much bigger than a B757, are they – except for being a wide-body?

Gorgeous set of images, Matt. They’ve made me come over all trigger-happy. 🙂

But did Royal Brunei really only start serving LHR in the summer of 2011?

I’ve just taken a couple of my old logbooks down from the shelf at random, and I’ve found their aircraft in LHR logs for 2009 and 2008.

Did you mean to say that they started B777 ops to LHR in summer 2011?

Nice set of pics.

I taxied past the LOT 787 in Brussels last night, I saw an odd shaped aircraft (odd as in, not the usual) parked behind another one on stand and it was only when I got close did I realise it was the 787, it was too late to boot my phone up and grab a pic, shame as it looked stunning, and surprisingly small.

Great pictures there, still really loving the Thai livery, gotta love the 340-600.

I really love the shade of red VS are using now although I still think the VS title typeface is too fine. Agreed Matt about it being wrong if BA ever went for a ‘razzmatazz look’. Safe, solid and reliable is BA’s selling point.

I guess they’re appealing to two different markets? BA appeals to the discerning business traveller, while Virgin appeals to the Disney Land holiday goers. Their liveries reflect this, I would think it strange if BA went for a razzmatazz look – but you are right about them looking like inner-city buses.

I suppose it does, yes.

It is obvious that Virgin appreciates the value of new and refreshed liveries from time to time. What makes BA aircraft look so boring and tired, in my view, is the fact that the livery hasn’t changed for ages – same old tail design/same old blue interiors… its aircraft look like a fleet of tired inter-city buses.

ANZ is another example of the value of an interesting livery. Keep the photos coming. 🙂

Thanks guys; I’m sorry to hear that Culpano (it’s begging to look like Manchester has its own micro-climate, and not a good one) 🙁 You are spot on about batteries, I should get a spare. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I’d charged the one I had :p

The Virgin lipstick red is very luscious, if you look at the way the line curves up the fuselage on the A330 tail – it almost looks like a pair of lips!

super. I love the metal red on VS

No it was not sunny in Manchester but thanks for asking. Great shots Matt. Shameful on the battery situation though. Always carry a fully charged spare or you will regret it one day if you miss something spectacular.

Thanks, mrtotty. You are correct the red has been darkened. The airline has been through a livery binge over the past few years.

Going from the classic silver & purple to red to red with different tail deisgn to the dark metallic red you see today (made possible by a multi-layer painting technique only pioneered a couple of years ago).

Here’s the lighter shade, http://www.airliners.net/photo/Virgin-Atlantic-Airways/Boeing-747-443/2202696/L/&sid=4c3422e84796c4f1153a4f93edf8ce99

These are very good photos. Well done.

I like the darker red of the current Virgin Atlantic livery, or has it always been that colour?

Thank you, if it wasn’t for the fact it was so cold, I might have thought I’d been teleported to California – the sky was fantastic!

The Malaysian A380 does look impresive, let down slightly by the minimalistic tail I feel.
Other than the small issue of it was cold, I was being rather blasé about the fact my camera battery had lasted 3 airport visits and was still showing full 3 bars. It is therefore no surprise to say, that it stopped dead half way through photographing a Virgin A330. I was able to squeeze out a few more shots by letting it rest, but the 14:00 egyptair departure had no chance, sorry :p

Indeed it does, thanks ThreeSpool.

Stunning light make for stunning photos. Well Done!

Some very nice shots, and a lovely sky as a backdrop. I really like that Malaysian A380. I’ll even l forgive you for the absent Egyptair:):)