Plane Crazy: Spotters Out In Force As Starlet Of The Skies Touches Down

[john roe]

Plane crazy: spotters out in force as starlet of the skies touches down Rachel Olding

 

November 16, 2011

 

Qantas unveils the 787 Dreamliner

 

Qantas unveils the super-efficient Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The test aircraft will be in Sydney for two days to help celebrate Qantas' 91st birthday.

 

PLANE spotters are a distinctive breed. Armed with binoculars, telephoto lenses and milk crates (to gain a little extra altitude), they gathered at the perimeter fence at Sydney Airport to witness the arrival of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner to visit Australia.

 

''I think we smell the fumes. We're just sort of addicted,'' Kenny Chung, 26, a hospitality worker who visits this spot twice a week to ''spot'' new aircraft, said.

 

''It's not just that,'' his colleague, Alfred Portenschlager, 26, said. ''When the plane lands, when it flies … that grace in the air. Multiple thousands of tonnes just hanging in the air. I remember back in school I skipped class to go watch the first A380 land.''

 

Flying high ... those at Sydney Airport witnessed the arrival of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Australia.

 

As the 210-250 seater plane landed yesterday there were cheers and the click of camera shutters on the ground.

 

Binoculars followed its every move as it taxied into the airport's corporate area on the Australian leg of an around-the-world demonstration tour.

 

Three friends, Ken Sumner, Ryan Phillips and Brad Anderson, took the day off work and travelled from as far as the Blue Mountains for the ''historic'' event. They would spend the day finding more vantage points and spotting other aircraft.

 

Dreamliner touches down

 

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Sydney on November 15, 2011. Photo: AFP/Boeing Australia/James Morgan

 

''The first thing I do every morning is log on to the Boeing website and print out their press releases. I've got about 10 crates of press releases from 1987. Every morning, I print out the whole lot,'' Mr Sumner, 60, a librarian, said. ''Some blokes like cars,'' Mr Phillips, 32, added. ''For us, it's aircraft.''

 

The men read magazines, scroll through photos and build replicas. Some have visited the facility in Washington where the Dreamliner is built.

 

''You can look at all the pictures but until you see it in the flesh … it's something else,'' Mr Anderson, 32, said.

 

''Grace in the air'' … Brian Tai and Alfred Portenschlager prepare for the arrival of the Dreamliner at Sydney Airport. The Dreamliner is 60 per cent quieter than the Boeing 767, uses a fifth less fuel and can carry 50 per cent more cargo. ''The Boeing 787 … heralds a new era of quieter, greener aircraft,'' Kerrie Mather, the chief executive of Sydney Airport, said.

 

Qantas is expected to take delivery of the 787 in 2013.

 

Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/travel/travel-news/plane-crazy-spotters-out-in-force-as-starlet-of-the-skies-touches-down-20111115-1nhai.html#ixzz1dqweZgaT