Something old, something new

Today I got to catch an airplane I've known about for some time but have only seen once, and that when the camera wasn't handy. This Lufthansa B747-8I  wears a legacy livery that, in my humble opinion, is much more appealing than the new livery that Lufthansa has recently introduced. Since Lufthansa operates the B747-8 seasonally at LAX, it's been months since the last time I saw this airplane and I've been hoping to catch it ever since.

 Just to recap, Lufthansa's livery went from this:

To this:

 And now this:

In other livery news, United just announced their new paint scheme yesterday. And then lo and behold, look what taxied out this afternoon:

This chance shot shows the new United colors on a B737-800 and the retiring ex-Continental colors on a SkyWest E-175:

 

Congratulations to DD and MK, our latest controllers to finish training -- just in time for summer! 

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2015! I'll start the new year off with a collection of noteworthy heavy jet shots taken over the holidays. These first don't seem so notable at first, until you consider that we hardly ever get Delta or United B747s at LAX anymore. These two both showed up and then left again on the same day.

KLM still brings in a daily B747. This one is marked to commemorate their 95th anniversary:

Next, the latest carrier to replace their B747s at LAX with B777s:

China Airlines (callsign: Dynasty) has recently started operating B777s between LAX and Taipei

Air Canada's Rouge normally operates A319s at LAX, but during the holiday season they've also shown up in a B767:

Besides the Rouge B767, also notable in this shot is the TACA Airbus; we don't see this livery at LAX much anymore; most of the TACA aircraft we see now bear the new Avianca paint scheme

Gratuitous dragon photo:

Boeing pix

This is for all of you who believe that I can only take pictures of A380s. I grant that recent posts would lead one to that conclusion, so today's post will be exclusively Boeing products. The opening features an AeroMexico B737-800 with the new split scimitar winglets developed by Aviation Partners. United was the first carrier to put these on their planes; I also have seen them on Alaska, Southwest, and WestJet.

Kalitta Air (callsign: Connie) is a regular at LAX, but rarely seen during daylight hours. I got lucky last week when they showed up -- not only during the day -- but also on Runway 24 Left:

Next, we have another arrival:

Now that FedEx has retired their B727s, the B757 is the smallest FedEx airplane we see at LAX. At the moment, I believe we get two per day; the remainder of the FedEx flights are A300s, DC-10s, and MD-11s. 

United is the first carrier to bring the stretched B787-9 to LAX. The shot above shows a B787-9 getting towed onto the gate, while a "normal" B787-8 rolls for departure. Below, a B777-200 passes behind in a shot taken slightly earlier.