On board the JetBlue Vets In Blue Inaugural

JetBlue celebrated Veteran’s Day in a big way this year. The most visible bit of the effort was the new Vets in Blue livery, an aircraft specially painted to honor honor veterans. I was invited along for the first flight of the freshly painted plane and the festivities which followed.

JetBlue Vets in Blue takes flight

Vets in Blue entered service on 10 November 2014 carrying more than 100 veterans from New York City to Washington, DC. The group was hosted for a lunch at the airport and then provided with a tour of several memorials around town.

As an AvGeek on board I was certainly excited for the flight as well. Particularly the traditional water canon salute from the fire department. We ended up with three baths that day; the pilot noted that it was likely the cleanest the plane had ever been.

And, as an added bonus, our approach into DC used the River Visual approach giving a spectacular view of downtown DC and the Mall from seat 23A.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Seth Miller (@wandrme)

The first stop on the tour JetBlue arranged was the Disabled Veterans Memorial, the newest of the many sites in DC honoring military veterans; it opened just last month.

From there the group moved to the World War 2 memorial and made the walk along the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial.

After that was a quick drive through Arlington National Cemetery before returning to the airport for the return to New York.

It was, most certainly, a whirlwind sort of day. And also a spectacular one.

Here’s the official video produced by JetBlue as part of the trip. Different focus (and production quality) but I think mine is pretty good, too.

And also a few more stories worth reading about the Vets in Blue events:

Never miss another post: Sign up for email alerts and get only the content you want direct to your inbox.

Collins brings galley inserts online with low-cost retrofit option

Is the aircraft cabin finally ready to report its health autonomously? Collins Aerospace believes the answer is a resounding yes, with the introduction of a low-cost retrofit solution which allows galley inserts to automatically transmit data in real-time from the aircraft to maintenance operations.

by Seth Miller 2 days ago6 days ago