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Easter egg in flight path of last 747 delivery flight

flightradar24.com

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Re: Easter egg in flight path of last 747 delivery flight

#81

Post by kortilla »

dheera wrote: post #63
davidw wrote: post #14

As someone who does not like flying (I don't like heights), I will miss those planes. The large size makes me more comfortable in one.

Interesting. I often feel safer in smaller (but not too small planes), where I don't see the wings visibly flapping. Something like a A320 or a 737. With 747s the wings flap up and down quite visibly in turbulence, and you can even see the fuselage twisting if the curtains aren't closed between the sections. There's also just the wall thickness to mass ratio. You ever notice that you can crash toy RC cars all you wan…

Any plane at 500mph is tissue paper if it hits something.

If you haven’t seen the wing flex in a 737 or A320 you aren’t paying close enough attention. It’s very obvious during the takeoff roll as load is applied or during any moderate+ turbulence.

Re: Easter egg in flight path of last 747 delivery flight

#82

Post by drjasonharrison »

jaywalk wrote: post #53
somat wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know anything about flight deliveries. But, including a set of basic flight maneuvers makes sense to me. In which case they would be maneuvering anyway and they decided to go out in style. Big salutes to them who set it up.

By the time the plane is delivered, it has already been fully flight tested.

Yeah, you don't want to find the problems on the delivery flight.

Re: Easter egg in flight path of last 747 delivery flight

#83

Post by mulmen »

blantonl wrote: post #79
supernova87a wrote: post #46

I find it just really endearing that at companies, regardless of how many other issues they have or the dysfunctions and bland corporate culture, there are people who keep the pride of purpose and "olden days / traditions" in their memory and do things like this. Or are able to call on institutional memory of something bygone, that reappears once in a while. (whether it's a big gesture like this or small cultural day…

What's cool is that aviation can be so stifling at times with training, rules, regulations, etc, that it seems that certain very cool traditions are either set in stone, or born and survive relatively intact. ADSB reporting, which powers these flight tracking sites that are available to the public, is (relatively speaking) a very new thing to aviation and the general public. And the fact that these maneuvers are abso…

Is this tradition even new? Drawing things in the sky seems to be a well established aviation tradition.

Re: Easter egg in flight path of last 747 delivery flight

#84

Post by capableweb »

dheera wrote: post #63
davidw wrote: post #14

As someone who does not like flying (I don't like heights), I will miss those planes. The large size makes me more comfortable in one.

Interesting. I often feel safer in smaller (but not too small planes), where I don't see the wings visibly flapping. Something like a A320 or a 737. With 747s the wings flap up and down quite visibly in turbulence, and you can even see the fuselage twisting if the curtains aren't closed between the sections. There's also just the wall thickness to mass ratio. You ever notice that you can crash toy RC cars all you wan…

> There's also just the wall thickness to mass ratio. You ever notice that you can crash toy RC cars all you want and they never break, but if you crash a real car even mildly it's rather easily totaled?

That might not be the best to share to someone who says they are being uncomfortable in a airplane, you're making things worse for them! :D

Re: Easter egg in flight path of last 747 delivery flight

#85

Post by kloch »

isaacdl wrote: post #18
aeturnum wrote: post #16

Makes me think of the famous "707 Barrel Roll" story from its initial testing: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/60-years-ago-the-f... “You know that. Now we know that. But just don’t do it anymore.” Edit: forgot the barrel roll was on a 707 - not a 747

Should note that's a 707 that Tex Johnston rolled, not a 747. I'm not aware of any barrel rolls performed in a 747.

It wasn't even a 707, it was a prototype model 367-80.

There were some unusually significant structural differences between the prototype dash 80 and production 707's, for example:

> The 132 in (3,400 mm) wide fuselage of the Dash 80 was large enough for four-abreast (two-plus-two) seating like the Stratocruiser. Answering customers' demands and under Douglas competition, Boeing soon realized this would not provide a viable payload, so it widened the fuselage to 144 in (3,660 mm) to allow five-abreast seating and use of the KC-135's tooling.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_367-80

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_707

Re: Easter egg in flight path of last 747 delivery flight

#86

Post by rdhatt »

c7DJTLrn wrote: post #27

Are jumbo jets being retired because of fuel economy? If so, is there a chance demand for them will return if there's a spike in passenger numbers? I would've thought a larger fleet of smaller planes would be less efficient because it increases operational cost and you have more overhead weight to move around.

Wendover Productions has a great video on this topic:

Big Plane vs Little Plane (The Economics of Long-Haul Flights) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlIdzF1_b5M

Re: Easter egg in flight path of last 747 delivery flight

#87

Post by dylan604 »

somat wrote: post #43
ssgodderidge wrote: post #7

Any flight buffs know the estimated cost of doing something like that? I’m all for having fun, and I love that they spent the money to do it

I don't know anything about flight deliveries. But, including a set of basic flight maneuvers makes sense to me. In which case they would be maneuvering anyway and they decided to go out in style. Big salutes to them who set it up.

You can tell nobody from Nascar was involved as there are both left AND right turns.

Re: Easter egg in flight path of last 747 delivery flight

#88

Post by dylan604 »

drjasonharrison wrote: post #82
jaywalk wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By the time the plane is delivered, it has already been fully flight tested.

Yeah, you don't want to find the problems on the delivery flight.

Better then than on the first passenger filled flight. Don't think of it as the delivery flight. Think of it is final test flight

Re: Easter egg in flight path of last 747 delivery flight

#89

Post by blantonl »

This was almost certainly drawn out by hand, waypoints (lat/lon) and turns were plotted and then inputed into the flight management computer, and there is a good chance the plane just flew itself as told.

Although given it was flown at such a lower altitude below 15k feed near Moses Lake (which is where Boeing does a ton of testing at that airport) it's possible the pilots hand flew this by following a pre-plotted magenta line already plotted on a map for them.

Re: Easter egg in flight path of last 747 delivery flight

#90

Post by blantonl »

Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #28

So, how does this work? Do you plot this via the Auto Pilot? Like, inserting a list of waypoints?

Given that they flew this below 15k feet, not requiring the full IFR flight plan which would be required above that altitude, I suspect they might have hand flown this out by Moses lake by following a magenta line on a map.

They could have also just programmed the FMS with the waypoints and the plane flew itself.

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