Honeywell Flight Test Aircraft

[Grahame Hutchison]

Men At Work

After a hopefully pleasant weekend off in Sydney, the Honeywell crew were hard at work this morning preparing for their first Test Flight out of Sydney. From a few minor adjustments to the satellite antenna
on top of the fuselage, down to cleaning the cockpit windows, it was all hands on deck preparing for departure.

The original Flight Plan was for an 1100L departure, returning at 1205L, however there was a delay, and the flight plan was amended to a 1210L departure, arriving back in Sydney at 1305L. Qantas Tug Red
Sierra towed N757HW out onto Taxiway Golf for engine start, and the long 5.5Km taxi out to the Tango 6 Holding Point on Runway 34R.

The Test Flight was up quickly from Runway 34R and tracked out to Auckland, before turning left and heading back into Sydney for a Runway 34R approach. I was all setup at the Port Botany launching ramp,
when ATC offered them Runway 34L - you can't always win.

Honeywell's Flight Test aircraft arrived in Sydney mid afternoon on Friday, after operating sectors from Macau via Darwin. The aircraft is a 1983 build Boeing B757-225 (22194) originally operated by Eastern
Airlines as N504EA until 1995. The unique feature of the aircraft is the pod mounted high on the fuselage just behind the cockpit, which can take a third engine for flight test purposes. On this mission Honeywell
are testing inflight WiFi.

[Noel White]

Many thanks Grahame for the photos. I was hoping that you would be about for the a/c's movements. Wanted to see a clear photo of that test engine pod. Very interesting.

[Terence W]

Thanks for the great photos of this unique aircraft Grahame!

[Nigel C]

Some night shots can be found here https://www.facebook.com/SydneyAirpo...type=3&theater

[Grahame Hutchison]

Thanks Noel and Terence - great night shots Nigel.

Noel, here are some images from the B752s arrival on Friday, with some closer shots of the engine pod (forgot to post them). It was totally overcast and late in the day, however the images came up not
too bad.



This pod is used to mount Honeywell's HTF7000 and TFE731 business aviation engines for testing




The Captain's front window looks to have been replaced










Using a giant "Selfie Stick" to put the Pitot covers in place


Using a giant "Selfie Stick" to put the Pitot covers in place

[Nigel C]

And people complain about the fence.....pfft!

Thanks Grahame. Here's the night shots for people who don't have Facebook.

[Grahame Hutchison]

I have just uploaded my video of the Honeywell B752 (N757HW) WiFi Test Flights.

The dis one flight on Monday and four today.

Watch The Video