{"id":21221,"date":"2022-03-08T01:44:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T01:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=21221"},"modified":"2022-04-27T17:35:01","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T17:35:01","slug":"the-last-plane-out-of-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/national-news\/the-last-plane-out-of-town\/%20","title":{"rendered":"An Outcast Among Boeings & Airbuses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo above – In the background: A Russian-built jet banished to a tiny, isolated apron at DC’s Dulles International Airport. <\/em>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story and photo by Michael J. Schoen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I rent a priceless, ever-changing piece of aviation art:<\/strong> the picture window in my apartment. It overlooks Washington, DC’s Reagan National Airport. The Pentagon and its helipad are across the street from me. On the other side of the Potomac River, I can see the South Lawn “helipad” at the White House. “Andrews Air Force Base” is just over the tree line. A little further out is a glide path to Baltimore-Washington International airport. If you look slightly upwards you can see a departure route from Washington’s international airport: Dulles. And far above it all is a high-altitude jet route, along which airliners fly at 30,000 feet. If their beautiful contrails were infinite, you would see them stretching back to airports all over the country, and the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 11th I was delighted when my\nplane-spotting app alerted me to something I’d never before seen in my\nairspace: a Russian airliner was passing overhead. It was cruising at 37,000\nfeet, enroute from Moscow to Miami. Like so many Russian-operated\nairliners, it was a Western-built jet. Specifically, it was an Airbus A350, as\nI could clearly see with the help of my camera’s zoom lens. Russia was one of\nthe countries whose aircraft I had never before seen. So, I was quite excited!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One month later, I had an even rarer treat. On\nFebruary 11th, a Ukrainian-built, Russian-operated Antonov An-124\nfreighter passed by, high overhead. There are several reasons why it was truly\na joy to see that massive, four-engine jet: The An-124 is rare; something I’d\nbeen hoping to see for a long time. It was also my first glimpse of an aircraft\nthat wasn’t built in the West. And finally, there was the hopeful, political\nsymbolism of a Ukrainian-built, Russian-operated aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A few days later Russia invaded Ukraine.\nSoon after, Russian aircraft were banned from U.S. airspace, perhaps forever.\nNonetheless, last Saturday morning the aviation-aficionado community was abuzz\nwith the news that a Russian-government jet was inbound for Dulles. And not\njust any jet: it was a four-engine, Russian-built Ilyushin Il-96 airliner; one\nof a handful that are said to transport Russia’s President and other\nhigh-ranking officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, many of us hoped that this was a\ndiplomatic mission; an olive branch. But no. The U.S. was expelling a number of\nRussian diplomats, and the Ilyushin was reportedly coming to take them home,\nalong with their families and belongings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I drove out to Dulles, for my first good look at at a widebody airliner that wasn\u2019t built by Boeing or Airbus. The best place to see it was from atop Parking Garage #2. Upon arriving, I was surprised to find at least a dozen members of the press, with their TV cameras trained on the Ilyushin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was parked by itself, on a lonely, isolated\napron, amidst the vast, one-mile expanse of fields and woodlands between\nRunways 1C\/19C and 1L\/19R. No terminal. No jet bridge. Just a small entourage\nof a few shuttle vans, airline-food service trucks, and a mobile baggage\nloader. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next few hours, we watched as colorfully-painted Boeings, Airbuses, Embraers, and other Western-built jets came and went. These international-airline flights were bound for, or arriving from, airports all over the world. Except Russia and Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Ilyushin’s entourage had left, and the aircraft sat alone; cut off from the hustle and bustle of international commercial flights that were arriving and departing all around it. I couldn\u2019t help but find the aircraft\u2019s extreme isolation as being symbolic of Russia\u2019s current relationship with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo above – In the background: A Russian-built jet banished to a tiny, isolated apron at DC’s Dulles International Airport. Story and photo by Michael J. Schoen I rent a priceless, ever-changing piece of aviation art: the picture window in my apartment. It overlooks Washington, DC’s Reagan National Airport. The Pentagon and its helipad are across the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/DSCN4145-C-PS6-B-edit-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21221"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21872,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21221\/revisions\/21872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}