About a year ago, I wrote about the maiden passenger flight of the ANA Star Wars livery 787-9 JA873A and took another look at the R2-D2 special livery aircraft taking off . Half a year ago, I also introduced the ANA Star Wars livery aircraft No. 2 JA604A , but I didn’t expect that it would take another half year to finally meet aircraft No. 3, (because it generally flies international routes from Narita Airport to the USA) It wasn’t until yesterday that I learned on Twitter that JA789A had flown from Los Angeles to Haneda Airport. Despite the poor weather, I rushed to the international terminal and finally captured it in my lens.

ANA’s JA789A is a Boeing 777-300ER, Rolling out in 2010, it is equipped with two GE90-115B engines. At the end of March this year, it officially donned the full-body BB-8 robot livery from the movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.

From the International Terminal Observation Deck, I saw aircraft No. 3 parked at Stand 101 in the International Cargo Area. The shooting location was basically at Stand 109, so the distance wasn’t far, but the haze and heat haze severely affected visibility. What was incredibly coincidental was that the Star Wars livery aircraft No. 2 very cooperatively took off from Runway 16R, allowing me to capture the precious group photo of the Star Wars liveries above.

After waiting for more than two hours under the scorching sun, JA789A was finally pushed back and began taxiing. Here is a signature side shot with Tokyo International Airport Terminal 1 in the background:

At the threshold of Runway 16R, beginning the takeoff roll By the way, its destination was Narita Airport, just a few dozen kilometers away, where it would perform a long-haul flight to New York in the afternoon. Also, you can see an ANA Boeing 787 on the cargo apron in the distance in the background. It doesn’t have engines under its wings—does anyone know why?

Here is another side shot with Terminal 1 in the background during acceleration

The moment of liftoff I feel that for photographing takeoffs from Runway 16R, the observation deck at Terminal 1 is still the best choice. From this photo, you can see that the background is too cluttered, which affects the composition.

Retracting the gear immediately after takeoff

Goodbye, BB-8 livery aircraft. I don’t know how long it will be until we meet again. I hope to capture you under better lighting conditions in the future.