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Boeing 737-800 (N905NN) - Timing its arrival perfectly yesterday morning, AALs newly painted "Astrojet" retro liverybird (N905NN, which recently replaced N951AA as the American Astrojet paintbird) reverses thrust after landing on RNOs 16L at 10:22 AM, just two minutes after the prime eclipse time (the time when maximum eclipse coverage happened) officially occurred over Reno - 10:20 AM.  Although Renoites did not get to see a total eclipse, a great majority of the sun was obscured at 10:20 AM which is why the sky over the top of the mountains in the upper right corner of this photo is quite dark.  This is the second time N905NN has visited Reno since it was reclothed into this new garb.
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Boeing 737-800 (N905NN)

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Timing its arrival perfectly yesterday morning, AAL's newly painted "Astrojet" retro liverybird (N905NN, which recently replaced N951AA as the American Astrojet paintbird) reverses thrust after landing on RNO's 16L at 10:22 AM, just two minutes after the prime eclipse time (the time when maximum eclipse coverage happened) officially occurred over Reno - 10:20 AM. Although Renoites did not get to see a total eclipse, a great majority of the sun was obscured at 10:20 AM which is why the sky over the top of the mountains in the upper right corner of this photo is quite dark. This is the second time N905NN has visited Reno since it was reclothed into this new garb.

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Gary SchenauerPhoto Uploader
If the eclipse had not been occurring, this shot would have been severely degraded for two reasons. Without the eclipse, the bright late morning sun would have created an intense reflection from the silver fuselage and it would also have generated high temps on the runway surface that would have resulted in heavy heat wave distortion. So from a photographic viewpoint, N905NN arrived here from DFW at the best possible time.
usaf12367
Nice picture and a cool plane
sam kuminecz
great shot gary
mwlong
This is still my favorite American livery.
Gerrit K Spieker
Back when AA was a real airline
Gerrit K Spieker
When AA was a real airline
Gary SchenauerPhoto Uploader
Usaf12367, Sam, mwlong, and Gerrit >> Hi and TYVM for your comments, guys. Mwlong, I feel the same. Although I liked the R,W, and B on silver, this is my fav. Gerrit, I am in agreement with you, too. AA today is several steps down from what it was back then; in fact, it is even several steps down from what it was just a few years ago.
cliff731
Gary - that's another great photo capture... and one during the recent eclipse to boot!!!

A pilot friend of mine flew up to Nashville's KBNA to catch this eclipse in total obscurity. He shared his photo of the maximum eclipse event and it certainly appeared to have been totally dark for a few minutes.

If I can secure his kind permission, I'll share that photo with you via snail mail... :-)
Doug Lewis
Gary, all airlines are a shadow of their former selves from back in the day. Things started going down the toilet back in the late 70's/early 80's, IMO.
Now for the question: Is it cheaper to paint an aircraft or is this silver metal skin cheaper. Is the same skin no matter what and they just put a clearcoat over the metal in this case? Would like to learn why AA had silver/metal look for years.
Greg Byington
Very nice, Gary!
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