Plane spotting road trip : day 10 July 5th 2024 Leavenworth WA => Mukilteo WA - 4 airports
Yet another hot sunny day starting in Leavenworth WA, we drove west on SR2 towards the Seattle area and first stop was Kenmore at the very top of Lake Washington. We took the SR522 from Monroe into Kenmore and immediately to the south of this road is the home of Kenmore Air Harbor with code KKEH. This is a private facility which is their head office and they have year round scheduled service to Victoria Harbour in BC and seasonal flights to all sorts of islands and resorts in WA and BC with a sizeable fleet of de Havilland Beaver's and Turbine Otter's on floats. They also have their maintenance base and they do some third party work too and there are a few private Cessna's and Cub's on floats that live here too, though I believe some are used by Kenmore for flight training.
Looking south from the dock down Lake Washington and the water runway
N7LX ~ Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser ~ Salish Flyers
We drove down the east side of Lake Washington down the I405 to Renton at the very south end of the lake. Renton Municipal airport (code KRNT) is best known as the home of Boeing where the 737 family is built. They certainly take up the largest footprint at the airport, but there is a decent GA scene on the south and west side up to the float plane base named Wiley Post Memorial Seaplane Base at the north west side, where Northwest Seaplanes have a base with their Beaver's. During our visit it was at the height of the strike and being the extra long weekend, things were quiet. I saw 6x Maxes for Ryanair, 3x American, 2x United and single frames for SunExpress (Turkey), GOL (Brazil), TUI, COPA Panama, Aeromexico, Allegiant, Southwest and JinAir (S Korea) plus a P8 Poseidon for the USN. One of the commonest GA types present was the relatively rare Cessna 162 Skycatcher. First photo gives a feel for the mix of 737's and GA, second photo is the float base, third is the FBO.
N349TV ~ Boeing 737-8 MAX ~ American Airlines [Dallas Fort Worth TX]
N911KQ ~ Quest Kodiak 100 ~ Secret Squirrel Aerospace [Tampa FL] ~ ex N525AH
N847DS ~ Boeing P-8A Poseidon (737-800A) ~ US Navy
L-R ~ Boeing 737-8 MAX ~ N8905Q Southwest Airlines [Dallas Love Field TX], -8200's EI-IJZ & EI-IKA Ryanair [Dublin] & PS-GRF GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes [Rio De Janeiro]
EI-IJV ~ Boeing 737-8200 MAX ~ Ryanair [Dublin]
I wanted to go down to Auburn Municipal, but decided there was not enough time and instead went straight to King County International Airport - Boeing Field (code KBFI). I have been here a few times over the years, but not since 2015 and it is noticeable that access and visibility is getting more and more restricted since then. Boeing largely occupy the north west and south west side of the airfield, but it is near impossible to see the frames clearly now. The limited spots from the other side which are occupied by FBO's and the cargo carriers are fairly useless in the heat with the haze. There are mainly 737's parked on the ramp awaiting delivery, plus there are 787 and 777X prototypes to the north. There is now also a storage area on the west side of Marginal Way too with more Max's in long term storage. At the south of the museum is the military facility where there are KC46 tankers. From the terminal building on the east side, Kenmore Air Express operate scheduled flights to Eastsound (Orcas Island), Friday Harbor (San Juan Island) and Victoria (Vancouver Island BC) with a fleet of Cessna Grand Caravan's, as well as many charters all over WA and into BC including Vancouver also using the Pilatus PC12 to supplement the C208B's. Ameriflight have a large presence, no doubt helped by the presence of Boeing with BE99's and BE1900's, plus Airpac with C208's and Piper pistons and UPS have a facility, currently using 757's and 767's, though I have seen MD11's in the past. There are a few FBO's and a GA parking area also all down the east side.
Example of heat haze from east side ~ Boeing 737-8 MAX L-R ~ United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Ryanair, Shandong Airlines, Alaska Airlines & Xiamen Airlines
The Museum of Flight is on the west side between Boeing facilities and this was what I wanted to see this time. The exhibits are well documented but here is a link to the aircraft present https://www.museumofflight.org/exhibits-and-events/aircraft/
Outside is a beautifully restored genuine TCA Super Constellation and a Blue Angels Hornet. They also have a nice café with a patio overlooking the airfield with good views of runways operations when runways 14 are in action departing to the north. The museum is divided into six halls:
1) the Great Hall with the main exhibits, the stars being the worlds only remaining SR-71 two seater, a DC3 and Boeing 80 and quite a few rare historic types
2) Red Barn, the historic birth place of Boeing and there are no aircraft in here
3) Personal Courage Wing - dedicated to WW1 and 2 aircraft from both sides
4) Space Gallery - not my thing and no aircraft, but has a full NASA space shuttle trainer
5) Aviation Pavilion, where the large aircraft including Concorde, VC137 and 727, 737, 747 and 787 prototypes are and a few navy types and a random Antonov AN2 biplane
6) Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park with a B52 bomber restored that was at Everett until recently
60-6940 ~ Lockheed M-21 Blackbird ~ US Air Force
As with many museums, photography is fairly difficult as the exhibits are quite closely packed together, being a long weekend it was extremely busy with crowds of people so a lot of patience is required for clear shots and the lighting is very difficult, particularly for the aircraft suspended from the ceiling with sunlight coming through. The hardest was the pavilion due to the size of the aircraft and Concorde in particular is impossible to take a clean photo of it in one frame, even with a fisheye. A little disappointing, but at least they are preserved and covered from the elements which is the priority.
G-BOAG ~ Aerospatiale / BAC Concorde 102 ~ British Airways ~ ex G-BFKW
N787BX ~ Boeing 787-8 DreamLiner ~ Boeing Aircraft Co
Unregistered ~ Caproni Ca.20
163106 ~ McDonnell Douglas F/A-18A Hornet ~ US Navy (Blue Angels)
We proceeded north up the I5 to Everett and checked into the Extended Stay America Suites hotel in Mukilteo to the west. Across the road is the Azteca Mexican restaurant which is highly recommended! I drove around the Paine Field airport clockwise (code KPAE) approaching from the south west up the Mukilteo Speedway, starting at the parking lot for the Boeing Future of Flight visitor center which affords views across the apron from the north west corner at the end of runway 16. Immediately on the ramp to the north of the center are bare metal 777-9's which seem to be the frames allocated to Singapore and Lufthansa. On the main ramp there are 787's, 777F's, 767F's and KC46's present, immediately opposite is the fuel dock which had a USAF KC46, ex Norwegian 789 allocated to Lufthansa and UPS 763F unpainted. To the left is plant 45 which I think makes 767's and there was an unpainted Fedex 763F outside. To the right as you look south east is the main parking apron and delivery center. Present were aircraft for Oman Air, China Southern, Aeromexico, ex Norwegian now allocated to Lufthansa, China Eastern, Maersk Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo, Sichuan, Fedex and Vietnam plus a KC46 for the USAF and 777-9 prototype. As you drive round Paine Field Boulevard following the perimeter, to the north of the road is factory 40 which is - or was - the worlds largest building by area with a supported roof where 747's were built. Now it seems to be where the 777X is built and there are a few frames outside which as far as I can tell are all frames allocated to Lufthansa. I then headed back south following the perimeter fence and you can see the back end of the parked aircraft on the ramp which included 777F's for Lufthansa, DHL, Maersk, CMA CGM and Ethiopian, an USAF KC46 and ex Norwegian 789 and an all white 779 prototype both for Lufthansa.
B-20EG ~ Boeing 787-9 DreamLiner ~ China Eastern Airlines [Shanghai] + G-1003N ex G-CLJN ~ Norwegian Air UK ntu to be D-ABQA for Lufthansa + N5514X ~ Boeing KC-46 Pegasus to be 21-46097 with US Air Force + tail of A4O-SK ~ Boeing 787-9 DreamLiner ~ Oman Air [Muscat]
Boeing 777-9 ~ Lufthansa [Frankfurt]
N748AM ~ Boeing 787-9 DreamLiner ~ Aeromexico [Mexico City]
EC-OFP ~ Boeing 787-9 DreamLiner ~ Air Europa [Palma]
As you drive round past the terminal and the Everett Community College, where there is a Learjet 23 and Sabreliner preserved on the lawn outside. Most interestingly, there is a DH Comet in BOAC livery poking out their building undergoing further restoration plus a T28 and ex Fedex 727. There is also an FBO with a selection of bizjets, bizprops and GA. As you drive round there are also a couple of flying schools and lots of GA types, but also more parked 777-9's allocated to Emirates and Qatar. As you get round to the south side is the Boeing modification center where there are 737's and I saw some with Southwest, Avelo and Sun Country being turned around. There are also KC46's for both the USAF and JASDF.
54-3615 ~ Boeing KC-46A (767-2C) Pegasus ~ Japan Air Self Defense Force
A7-BKA ~ Boeing 777-9 ~ Qatar Airways [Doha]
ET-BAB ~ Boeing 777-F ~ Ethiopian Airlines Cargo [Addis Ababa]
As always, all photos and detailed information, particularly on the museum exhibits which I spent a lot of time on, are on my Flickr stream found in albums listed in alphabetical order here https://www.flickr.com/photos/23870098@N04/albums/
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