History Captured in Photos
History Captured in Photos
Harry Ding, 09/29/2024
Scrolling through the photos taken in the past years, I realized that these pictures are surrounded by history as time passes. There have been drastic changes in the aviation industry, and some of these pictures can tell the history of aircraft.
I want to start with this picture of the Alaska Horizon Air Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 (Yes I don’t like to call it DHC 8-400). This picture was taken at Seattle Tacoma International Airport, and I was on a flight from Seattle to Vancouver in 2018. This Dash 8 was waiting on the ramp next to us for take-off. This aircraft was later painted with “Horizon Retro” special colors in 2019. In 2023, Horizon Air decided to retire its Dash 8 fleet.
I found this picture of the recently retired Air China Boeing 747-400 (B-2445) I took during my transit in Beijing. This aircraft retired on September 6th, 2024, and it was the oldest aircraft in Air China’s fleet at 30.6 years at the time of retirement.
I took this picture in Nanjing, before boarding the flight to Hong Kong. Seeing a Boeing 747 in Nanjing Airport is a rare sight, especially since the majority of the planes operating in and out of this airport are Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s. Even the longest international routes at the time, Nanjing to Los Angeles/Sydney/Vancouver, were operated with A330-200. This China Airlines Boeing 747 was preparing for its service from Nanjing to Taipei, and this aircraft was retired in 2020.
My favorite aircraft is the A350. My first time on the A350 was with Hong Kong Airlines, service from Hong Kong to LA. I remembered my surprise when I saw the digital screens of the no-smoking sign on the A350. This flight had a lasting impact on me, and to this day my Google account profile picture is still a Hong Kong Airlines A350 I downloaded off JetPhotos. Hong Kong Airlines retired its A350 fleet in 2023.
Every time I land in Hong Kong, I will always notice the presence of the three airlines: Cathay Pacific, Cathay Dragon, and Hong Kong Airlines. This picture was taken well after Dragon Air’s rename to Cathay Dragon, and the aircraft was still in its former livery. This white-based livery stood out in the flock of green and maroon colors of other aircraft. Cathay Pacific shut down its subsidiary Cathay Dragon in 2020, and this aircraft was scrapped in Spain in September 2020.
I don’t know whether there is any other photo that records more history than this. Whether it’s the Dragon Air A330 I was in, the Shanghai Airlines A330 parked next to it, or the old livery Cathay Pacific plane behind the Shanghai Airlines. This is a scene that can’t be replicated forever. Dragon Air diminished in 2020, Shanghai Airlines returned all of their A330s back to China Eastern, and all of Cathay Pacific’s livery has been changed.
Lastly, this was taken from the seatback entertainment screen of a Delta Airlines Airbus A350. There is a page in Delta’s entertainment system that introduces their fleet. This is the page for their Boeing 777-200LR, all retired in 2020. At that time I was wondering how Delta Airlines compete with its competitors since they all have the new Boeing 787 and 777-300ER that offer better comfort than their fleet of older 777s and A330s. This thought fled my head after Delta received its A350 and became the sole operator of the A350 in North America.
It’s this realization of the historical significance of these pictures that brought a new meaning into my hobby of planespotting.