Qatar 787 Dreamliner at LHR

Hmmm… tempted :p I am heading down on sunday, but think my boss would crack up if i leave here that early hehehe

Thanks guys 🙂

Haha, if you can make it to LHR on Sunday, Tartan – you’ll see two within two hours – the weather’s not looking too bad either :p

Great wee set of shots Matt… think i am only photographer NOT to have seen a 787 yet (Still find it nothing remarkable to look at…slightly ugly 767 :D)
Aeromexico is fantastic!! never knew they were commencing LHR services.. and at a good time too…must look out for it
Good work

Some more nice ones Matt. Shame about the LOT 787, still, look at it as a pleasure yet to come:)

Brilliant shots.
Good to see AeroMexico serving LHR now!

Indeed it is!

Unfortunately I was shown up by LOT today 🙁 Having jogged to 27R of fear of missing the first 787… what came along was nothing short of a 737!
The world may not have ended today, but I got the next worst thing…

Anywho, it would appear the LOT 787 will be grounded for some time – major landing gear fault apparently! (what is it with LOT and landing gear issues? :D)

I got the Qatar again though 🙂

I thought at one point I was going to witness a go-around. Here you see a BA A319 and ANZ 77W – they’re less than 1 mile / 20 seconds apart! 😮

This was a common sight today, great vortices with the 95% humidity! Thank you Air India.

It’s a strangely beautiful and understated livery which the camera can’t do justice and you really need to see in reality to fully appreciate.

I agree. It’s a great scheme. The silver one is nice too and the white scheme looks even better on a wingleted 737.

Brilliant shots.
Good to see AeroMexico serving LHR now!

Thanks Rob and mrtotty (apologies I forgot to thank you in my previous replies).

The 787 is a beautiful aircraft, and quiet too! I had earphones in because I was listening to ATC and I guarantee you I couldn’t here even the faintest whisper of a jet engine. Even the A319s were louder! …the downside is, I doubt we’ll be seeing a reduction in the number of bird strikes any time soon :p

Nice shots! 🙂 I like the Qatar 787

I expect the BA fleet managers know what their doing with regards to replacement. The idea they’d run out of time and order anything that can be delivered quickly (eg. 748i) seems rather unorganised for a leading global airline.

You are right, they are also looking at the A350. This is quite an interesting read; http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/british-airways-may-take-more-777-300ers-as-it-ponders-big-twin-order-372729/

Someone suggested on another thread that if BA needs a lot of new aircraft in a hurry, there will be a lot of 747-8 aircraft knocking around struggling to find buyers, which could be delivered pronto.

If BA really needs the extended B777, why doesn’t it look at the A350-1000, which must be coming to market sooner? It’s 747-400s have looked very tired for a long time now.

As for AF funding the restoration of a DC-3, that’s great, but why stop there? A DC-6 would be a great addition.

Thanks MSR, I thought you’d like it 😉

I had heard the 747 served BA very well, whilst it might not offer the same efficiencies as the 77W the difference isn’t yet worthy of a replacement. It would be interesting to see how much longer the 747 remains in the fleet, with no major 777 order on the table seeing as Boeing postponed the 77X launch and with BA wanting to ‘try before they buy’ before committing heavily to the A380 it’s just a waiting game.
BA recently invested £1 billion in improving the 747 fleet (the new First for example) – so that’s one sign they’re not going anywhere for perhaps another 7+ years.

Retro flights in vintage aircraft would be awesome, in fact AF recently funded the restoration of an old DC-3, I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of it taxing at Montpellier last year. I believe it’s available for charter? F-BBBE.

These are excellent photos and many thanks for supplying them.

My impressions are threefold: firstly, that the B787 is much smaller than many must imagine it to be. The level of wing flex is exciting, but it is generally a strange looking aircraft to my eyes – particularly the flight-deck windows.

Secondly, that BA 747-400 looks about ready for the scrap heap. Its A380’s can’t come soon enough, but there aren’t enough new aircraft to replace the 747s, are there?

Finally, I agree that the Air France retro scheme doesn’t sit well on a current aircraft but that doesn’t stop it being very attractive. I just wish it was affixed to a DC-6 or a Constellation.

Retro flights in real vintage aircraft, not just vintage colour schemes, would be one for the books (but not practical – I know).

Very well done Matt! Nice to see that Egyptair A330. I’ve enjoyed all the retrojets we’ve seen so far, but that Air France livery just doesn’t sit right on the A320, but then again, I guess it just wasn’t designed for one.

Thank-you Culpano, Rob and FLY.BY, I’m glad you liked them 🙂

Great stuff Matt. Shame about light for the Aeromexico. I didn’t know Emirates Skycargo went into Heathrow. The LOT 787 is also coming in at end December.

It is indeed a shame about the aeroméxico, but I only went to Heathrow to capture the dreamliner – I only heard about the inaugural MEX-LHR flight the night before, so it was really just a novelty shot. However, if the route’s still active in the summer, I’d really like to capture it in more desirable light. It’s a strangely beautiful and understated livery which the camera can’t do justice and you really need to see in reality to fully appreciate.

The Emirates Skycargo comes in every Saturday and only Saturday. I hope to capture the second edition 787 (from LOT) next week, weather depending.

Tail shooting conception was superb, well done.

Thanks, I was planing to do something similar to what I did a few weeks ago at 27R. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8060/8236782441_fcfc83c7ca_b.jpg But the positioning of the trees around the perimeter of the field restricted me somewhat, so instead I went for vertical stabilizer close ups.

It amazed me how quickly my fellow photographers lay down their camera’s just because the aircraft were too close to their telephoto lenses to get an all in one shot. But there are still lots of interesting close up angles to get, they may not be a.net worthy, but they still make nice avatar’s or desktop wallpapers.
Also, if you’ve just had a monotonous stream of ten BA A320’s, when something new does comes along – you want to get every available angle (do you not)! :p

Matt

Tail shooting conception was superb, well done.

Great photos… love the 1st shot!!

Rob
🙂

Great stuff Matt. Shame about light for the Aeromexico. I didn’t know Emirates Skycargo went into Heathrow. The LOT 787 is also coming in at end December.

For 10 seconds we were transported back to the ’40s.

During the day, I went on a bit of a tail shooting high! Some turned out better than others.

Feel free to take a look at my other work –> http://www.flickr.com/photos/lhr_spotter/

Matt