Ethiopian Airlines' Dreamliners soars the Cameroonian sky

When I heard that Ethiopian Airlines’ Dreamliners would be coming to Cameroon from the month of October, I was elated. So the next time I was scheduled to work on Ethiopian, I made a request to our Ethiopian Airways Swissport supervisor to post me on the ramp…

“CY, I brought my camera. I want to take photos of the plane and write about it!”

“Ah, okay. So Nkiacha, position 4, Ramp safety.”

“Yes! Great.”

So a few hours later I was on the ramp, waiting for the arrival of the aircraft. And at about its estimated time of arrival, I spotted it in the sky blinking and approaching. As the world’s biggest Boeing airplane, the 787-8 Dreamliner landed, I announced it over our radio, took out the camera for the first landing shot and…Oops! It couldn’t switch on! Damn it.

“Come on, you’ve never done this to me! So you want to spoil my Dreamliner photo plans abi?” I slapped it gently. Nothing. Okay back to work.

The first thing I noticed about the state-of the-art aircraft is how gigantic it is. I used to consider the Swiss Air and Air France’s Airbus 330 planes big but the Dreamliner is bigger. It is colossal, with a max take-off weight of 227.930 kgs. The length is 57 metres, wing span 60 metres and interior cabin width 574 cm. Now that is a flying mansion! And it is very beautiful too; white, spotless, majestic, even sexy. With its sharp tapering nose which is evocative of Concorde’s.

Nose

Other Stats

Fuel capacity: 126.903 litres

Range: 14.500 km

Typical cruising speed at 35.000 feet

Thrust per engine at sea level: 64.000 pounds

The second observation I made is how “quiet” it is. The plane doesn’t make noise that much. It lands, taxies on the ramp silently and parks silently such that, if you are not looking at it, you’ll barely even notice that a plane has landed. You don’t really need an ear defender when working around it. The other smaller Boeing and Airbus planes make noise well. Not to mention those small archaic propeller planes (like those in the Rambo jungle movies) that fly to Malabo, with reactors that rotate and shatter the air with their deafening, ear splitting noises, “praaaa-pra-paaaa-paaa-papaaaapa” like a million primary school children and seek attention all over the place and if you don’t close your ears you will develop deafness.

The Dreamliner’s greatness is due to an improved engine and fuel efficiency improvisation. This contributes to 20% reduction in fuel consumption and emissions thus it is environmentally friendlier than the previous versions.

It is also going to be Ethiopian’s flagship aircraft. Okay, statistics move away, let me find my camera. Then it hit me. Try something, anything. I removed the battery and put it back in. I switched it on and….it worked!

Reactor

Rear view of reactor

Wheels

 

Offloading

I earlier said it’s gigantic right? But look at this. The 1.77m tall Nkiacha stood underneath the aircraft and his head couldn’t even reach the plane’s "belly"!

Underneath the aircraft

 Okay, take off time. I have to position myself perfectly for the photo. And as its speeding away furiously like a rhinoceros, I’m focusing and estimating exactly where lift off is going to be but oh, I got it wrong, there are baggage containers barring my vision and I begin running away from those containers to get the plane back in sight and focusing to get the perfect shot and…..yes

Take off

As the biggest Boeing airplane in the world pierces the afternoon sky and soars away like an eagle, I ponder about aerodynamic lift and admire the peak moment in aviation –takeoff.