N384HA Hawaiian Airlines Hōkūpa′a Airbus A330-243 LAX

Our Long Beach Bureau Chief caught Hōkūpa′a landing at Mines Field.

Hawaiian Air has previously used the birds of Hawaii for names of their planes. But with the introduction of the controversial Airbus, they switched to naming those planes after constellations.

Constellations that were used by early Polynesian navigators.

Hōkūpa′a means : "North Star," or "Polaris."

  

Hawker 900XP N482MG

A tip for the aspiring rookie aviation photographers visiting our site for college credit.

This is a shot you don't want.

Sometimes you can use this angle to grab an N- number...

But usually, if one of these is your best picture it means that you screwed up and missed the better shots just before it.

(Like we did)

In this case, it's a junk plane anyway so who cares  ....

$10,000 Bill

You'll recognize Salmon P. Chase on the Ten Thousand.

He was a U.S. Senator who served as Treasury Secretary under President Lincoln.

They had 100 of these at the Horseshoe in Las Vegas - with sequential numbers.

Mark Spitz 1972 LAX

Here's Mark Spitz retuning home from the 1972 Summer Olympics in München where he won 7 Gold Medals, while setting new world records in each event.

And he happens to be wearing a gold shirt.

Kodak Instamatic X-15 with flashcube.

The "Airplane Life" Vest Contest !!! Coming in February !!!

STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS OF OUR OUR BIGGEST GIVEAWAY YET !!!

       

Tuna Pizza

This pizza features Ahi tuna, olives, anchovy aïoli, and jalapeño.

It was created by "Iron Chef" Masaharu Morimoto.

Boeing 2707-300 SST

I happened to be looking at some Concorde pictures today, while envisioning a future post. But that got me thinking about the US SST. I'm still mad at Senator Proxmire (D-Wisconsin) for his role in shutting down that project back in 1971. It had over 100 orders. More than the Concorde.

  

De Havilland DHC-8-103

Bombardier has introduced new weight saving techniques for the Dash 8 aimed at reducing the fuel consumption rate. N809WP shown before and after retrofit.

James Bond 007 "Casino Royale" airplane - Skyfleet X570 prototype

This modified 747-236B appeared in the Bond movie "Casino Royale."

We extend a special thanks to our colleague n94504/jetphotos.net for allowing Airplane Life to display these images :

After 007, the same jet was in a VW commercial :

Airport Warning Placard

Now let's just think about this for a moment ...

Terror in the Sky

The turbulence we had on descent into Dallas on this particular Southwest flight from Memphis back in 1991 was radical.

Photo depicts my unwitting seatmate ...

I hoped this picture might be recovered amidst the twisted shards of burning wreckage because we thought it was the last photo we'd ever take.

    

Passenger Warning Placard

Now let's just think about this for a moment ...

UPS MD-11F N291UP

I wonder why these guys changed their radio callsign from, "UPSCO" to "U-P-S."

We liked it better the other way.

Send a letter to your Congressman.

  

Rolls Trent 1000, GEnx, P&W JT8D

OK, we don't know which motors these 787 jets over at at Kilo North are fitted with.

Either way, what we don't understand is how those things are supposed to make any thrust !

It looks like they would just add drag ...

Same goes for this 747 with the rain gear on. It says 14,000 lbs of thrust, so we're assuming that must be a Pratt & Whitney JT8D on there.

Playboy Jet N950PB DC9-32 the Big Bunny

'Don't talk about it much, but yes .. we were there.... secrecy vow still applies  ...

                   

Vasútállomás Budapest

Nem emlékszem, hová megyek.

Happy New Year from Airplane Life !

Happy 2013 everybody !

We wish all of our readers the best of everything in 2013 !

Please enjoy Airplane Life responsibly  ...