My Best Aviation Pix pg 3

My Best Aviation Photos - Eye Candy Three	Bob Bogash

I try to start with a Home Run - so I think this qualifies!

Drop Dead Gorgeous

Concorde Alpha Golf - one of my proudest acquisitions for the Museum of Flight
Click here for the full story

I was showing this picture to my girlfriend Margaret and she wanted to see
the outside of the airplane and when I saw the picture above
- well, I knew how to start my Eye Candy page!

Might as well kick in a few more

Arriving at Boeing Field - 5 Nov 2003

In front of the Museum

Moving in to the new Pavilion

Boeing Field

Air Canada DC-8-40 just landed at YVR

Electra of the L.A. Dodgers
Baseball teams used to travel by train, but the Dodgers were the leaders in moving to air.
They started in 1950 with a DC-3, then a Convair 440, DC-6B, Electra, and Boeing 720.
The Electra, which they bought as a new-build, served them through the 1960s

If you can beat this for beauty, send me a copy.

First 747-8i passenger Intercontinental at Paine Field before First Flight

Air Micronesia at HNL - Air Mike

Wow! A beautiful 737-200 still in service!!!

Restoring 727 Prototype with my RV-12 taxi

OK - Story Time

It was January 2016 and we were restoring E1 - the 727 Prototype - for it's last flight to Boeing Field.

Outside on the ramp were two brand new Boeing 747-8i Intercontinental's.
They were being stored because their customer - Russian airline Trans Aero - had gone
bankrupt before delivery and so they had become orphans - or "White Tails."

At about the same time, newly sworn-in President Donald Trump had complained about the high cost of the two airplanes selected by USAF to replace the existing 747-200s (VC-25), which had entered service in 1990. He said he wouldn't pay more than $2B each for them. Having worked the existing Air Force One contract back in the 1980s with Gen. Guy Townsend (Ret.), I knew the Air Force would only want New airplanes and was always worried about restricting access to the airplanes during construction. They were afraid someone would sabotage the airplanes. I figured the fact that nobody knew these airplanes would ever become Presidential Airplanes was good insurance nobody would ever sabotage them. And Boeing couldn't sell them.

So I wrote Trump a letter suggesting he could cut a good deal with Boeing on these two new airplanes that were finding difficulty finding a home. They were already built which would cut the flow time substantially. I never received a reply; don't know if the letter ever made it past someone's round-file, but in February 2018, it was announced that USAF had purchased two aircraft for $3.9B, and guess what? Yup, these were the two airplanes. Can't claim credit; can't claim anything. But...... Meanwhile, Boeing has suffered numerous program delays and cost overruns (these were initially Firm Fixed Price contracts) making delivery now not until 2028, meaning even the next President won't fly in them. A "typical" program in today's Boeing. And.... Boeing has incurred losses of over $2B to date. Trump may have cut a good deal, but Boeing has taken it in the shorts. Don't blame me.....

Falcon 900 at Bremerton (KPWT)

NWA DC-10 in Honolulu

Quebecair DC-3 in Montreal

Quisqueyana Connie in San Juan

North end of Boeing BFI Flight Line

Wien Connie in Fairbanks

What I like about web publishing is the interaction with the readers. In the case of the above Wien Connie, my good friend Gary Heaton - a retired Air Traffic Controller in Scotland - sent me follow-up info on N7777G. I took that Fairbanks picture in April 1967. The airplane looked like its flying days may have been over. But, as is so often the case, not quite! Gary sent me two pictures of the airplane. The first in the Corrosion Corner in Dublin, and the second at the British air museum at Wroughton (in TWA colors.)

My Port Townsend pals Jim and Warren building one of several Cubs
from an assortment of salvaged pieces and parts.

A Golden Oldie - a C-130A Model
Westover AFB

Royal Air Maroc 727-200 at YUL (Montreal)

Omni 767 at BFI

There are few things more challenging and more exciting than building your own airplane!

My hangar neighbor and friend Gerry White built a Vans RV-9A when I was hangared in Bremerton.
Gerry was a retired Northwest A320 pilot. Before NWA, he flew KC-135s for USAF.
I helped him (but not much) and took him for a ride in my Vans RV-12.

Here he is getting ready to depart for his exciting First Flight

Here he is lifting off the ground for the first time.
The Moment of Truth
When a "machine" becomes an "airplane".
I stood along side the runway to capture the magic moment.

And here he has the "RV Grin" after successfully returning to Earth
and proving that his creation could actually fly!

Flying is a Miracle, and flying an airplane you built yourself is extra special.