Around The Metroplex: April 24-25
It's been a cloudy but busy past 48 hours here in the Fort Worth, TX area. Yesterday at the Fort Worth Alliance Airport, we had two fairly rare Boeing visitors - one from 1961 and one from 2021! First to depart was "HOKU 808," a KC-135 making the long trek back to it's home at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Mere minutes later, the much newer 737 MAX 10 taxied out as "BOEING 101" for a 7hr10m test flight over the Gulf of Mexico. Amazing that 60 years separate these airframes yet they still share many similarities, like that iconic Boeing cockpit/nose section.
Fast forward to this morning, and I made the quick trek down to the Fort Worth Meacham Airport and made it just in time to see two beautiful CH-53K King Stallions belonging to the Ironhorse of HMH-461 (Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina) prepping to depart. My first time seeing the relatively new King Stallion in the flesh! It's almost unsettling how clean these CH-53s are...! First to taxi out was "METAL 44" which first flew only 4 months ago followed by "IRONHORSE 12," which interestingly enough is the first King Stallion delivered to the USMC back in May 2018! Both headed east for what I assume is the trek back home to North Carolina after spending time at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Southwest Arizona.
