Thursday, May 29, 2014

What's special about this picture?


I was about to go downstairs on a break and happened to look out the window and saw this today. I noticed something; can you see it?  (Yes, I realize that's wide open. So, what do you see here?)

18 comments:

  1. Both old and new AA livery, side by side.

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  2. US Air 321 painted in New American Airlines colors.

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  3. A321 and the aircraft it is designed to replace, the 757? But that seems too obvious.

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  4. The Airbus is actually USAirways metal, no blended winglets.

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  5. The Airbus is a US Airways airplane.

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  6. a cactus A321 posing as AA?

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  7. An American Airbus A321 painted in new colors, with endplates, and a Boeing 757 with new winglets, but in the old 'metal' livery. Airbus calls the new large winglets 'sharlets'.
    I thought it was one of the new order of Airbus A321s that American is now receiving, curious that it was not fitted with the new sharklets. Then I magnified the picture to read the reg and searched it on Airliners.net. To my surprise, there are no photos of this plane there! I tried the same with the 757 with the same result! Thinking I misread the reg, I tried N782AN, but that is a 777.
    Intrigued, I tried the FAA reg search, where the airbus comes up as registered to
    US AIRWAYS INC
    111 W RIO SALADO PARKWAY
    in TEMPE, ARIZONA
    The Line Number is 6100, indicating a very recent delivery.
    Certificate Issue Date 05/15/2014
    I tried the 757 too, and it comes up as N-number not valid.
    I'm reading it as N-78ZAN
    After writing the above, I thought about searching @ airfleets.com.
    I found no 757s with regs ending in ZAN, but some ending 2AN
    I finally decided this one should read N182AN
    The aircraft ( if correctly identified now ) is LN 853 delivered 03/03/1999.
    I returned to the FAA reg search and found the Certificate Issue Date 03/04/1999
    Apparently to date, no American 757s have been painted into the new livery.
    So what did Captainvector notice? Probably just the reg of the A321 ending in -UW, indicating a USAirways plane.
    --Filip

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    1. Nice work. One thing that may help you in the future: US aircraft registrations will have a maximum of five numbers, or fewer in combination with a maximum of two letters (not counting the "N" prefix), e.g. N12345, N1234, N123, N12, N1, N1234A, N123A, N12A, N1A, N123AB, N12AB, N1AB.

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    2. Dear Anon........Holy Moly......I thought I was a 'Nutcase'...Aviation geek.....!!!! I LOVE IT........♥.......the only difference......probably is Aviation makes my heart pound..........Aviation makes you pull out your 'STATS' ....pamphlet......Kidding......:)

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  8. My guess is that the AA plane in the new livery is actually going to a USAir gate at Terminal 1; part of the merger.

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  9. A contrast of the new and the old: new paint job and livery and new airplane for AA vs. the old paint job, livery and airplane.

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  10. A reverse pattern in use, using runways 7L and 7R, since both American aircraft are pointed west for taxiing. Big fan of the website!

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    1. Ok, I guess that makes another red herring that I should've included in the list. This shot was actually taken on the north side, adjacent to Terminal Three. The new-paint Airbus is on Taxiway D, while the old-paint B757 is on Taxiway E. They're both facing east: the intersection just in front of them is Taxiway D-9. The B757 was headed for San Francisco (not a usual B757 destination for American out of LAX) and taxied around from the south side to depart off Runway 24 Left. The Airbus was waiting for a wheels-up time into Phoenix.

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  11. Old vs. new livery of AA. Also a new airplane for AA vs. old fleet B767/757.

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  12. Uggghhhhh.......I love these 'posts' of yours......but....holy moly.....CaptainVector....you sure leave a lot.....up to us.....what do I see.......2 planes........2 different..liveries....one sucks the other....doesn't suck......one has winglets, one has the sharklets(i think, don't quote me).......they're 'taxiway' racing , and that's against the FAA rules.....O_o !!! The pilot in the older American livery can't access his 'ego' ........was too large, overhead bin, too small... had to go its in the 'cargo hold'....so he's crabby....and they haven't gotten off the ground...yet......Mmmmm........I'll stop........before I get you mad at me.......I am very interested ....what the answer is......DUH......OH and the main problem, here....is that I'm not in either 'Jump' seat...and thats a crying shame.......tears.....;) Have a great week Captain Vector...!!!......PS...you know what really scares me.........is the 'prove your not a robot'......lets just say....I was racking up frequent flyer miles.........just trying to PASS that test..tooooo...;)

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  13. The A321, in the foreground, is actually a USAir airplane re-painted in American Livery. This Airbus lacks the extra large "Sharklets" that are standard on the American Airbus planes.

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