Ian Kluft ✅✈️🎈🌋Apr 29, 2025
I bicycled to Portland Int'l Airport #KPDX for a closer view of this unpainted Boeing 737 MAX8. Coming from Renton WA #KRNT where the 737 final assembly line is, I suspect this was the very first flight of this aircraft, known as the "B1" flight since it's the first flight done by Boeing test pilots. (A later pre-delivery flight with customer test pilots is called the "C1" flight.) Boeing has a paint hangar in Portland so some new planes fly here on B1 to get painted. #aviation #avgeek #PNW
Show threadIan Kluft ✅✈️🎈🌋Apr 29, 2025

Sometimes a perceptive #avgeek can tell which airline an unpainted new plane will be going to. The rudder gets installed already with final paint because the paint hangar can't get inside the mechanism with out disassembling it, which they don't want to do. Unless it's a special livery, this looks to me like it's going to Singapore Airlines.

Credit to @JetTip for the first hint that a Boeing-owned plane might be on the way to Portland from Renton, which I inferred as possibly new. #aviation

Show threadAirplanista 🇺🇦
@ikluft @JetTip That's some serious #avgeekery right there, Ian.
Apr 29, 2025 at 2:23amWeb
Show threadIan Kluft ✅✈️🎈🌋Apr 29, 2025
@Av8rdan @JetTip I've seen unpainted green 737 MAX and 777 planes coming to Portland before, usually when I'm at or near home and not even looking for planes. This was the 2nd time I was aware of one coming, and first time I had enough warning to try to go to the airport for a better picture than from the house. I just barely got close enough in time for that picture. But I had to stop in the I-205 bike path and just get a couple shots of it going by. With 7 more minutes I'd have been at 28L.