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A plane flying over Germany drawing a Christmas tree
- nowherecat 9y agoIs this a joke? If not what would be the point of this, seriously? Reminds me of drones writing the name of a Pharmaceutical product into the blue sky of Toronto, a few years back.
- pjc50 9y agoI believe it's described as a "test flight", so the only purpose is to fly around for a few hours and watch the instruments .. so you might as well add a few lazy turns in and draw a pattern. So long as it's outside major air routes and military airspace it's in nobody's way.
- rdtsc 9y ago> If not what would be the point of this, seriously? A publicity stunt, fun, or just spreading Christmas cheer. > writing the name of a Pharmaceutical product into the blue sky of Toronto, a few years back. And then there was the US Navy http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/17/politics/navy-aircrew-obscene-skywriting/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/17/politics/navy-aircrew-obscene-...
- jdcarter 9y ago"In case there was any doubt, the US Navy has confirmed that there is 'zero training value' in drawing penises in the sky."
- staticelf 9y agoAnyone know the reason for this? To promote this website? :P
- mikeash 9y agoBoeing has done this before when they needed to make a long test flight but didn't have to go anywhere in particular for it. If you have to cruise around for X hours and end up back where you started, may as well trace out an amusing shape while you're at it. This looks like some sort of Airbus test flight so probably the same idea.
- thesimon 9y agoTest Flight (probably acceptance flight) of A380 for Emirates. Started and landing at Airbus' factory in Hamburg.
- ilogik 9y agoI assume it's a test flight....other wise it would a very expensive thing to do
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- pizzetta 9y agoThat's pretty cool, ornaments and all. Boeing flew in the shape of an airliner once http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/08/boeing-plane-flies-test-route-in-shape-of-a-plane.html http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/08/boeing-plane-flies-test-r...
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- kharms 9y agoSpeculating here, but pilots have flight hour requirements for various certifications. Maybe this is a flight that had to happen to log hours but isn’t otherwise necessary so the pilot decided to have some fun.
- alistairSH 9y agoI imagine an airliner flying a pattern this large would take the involvement of more than just the pilot/crew. ATC, airline's planning/staffing group, ground crew (fueling), etc.
- joezydeco 9y agoPre-delivery checkout flight. Airbus' A380 delivery office is at the Finkenwerter plant.
- VonGallifrey 9y agoIt is the Airbus Flight Test Team[0]. The Hamburg XFW Airport is used by Airbus to test their new A380 just before delivery. This Christmas flight was the First Flight of this Tail ID so I would guess that it is a new A380 being tested. The second flight of this A380 looks more like what we usually see here for these kinds of Test flights[1]. Back and forth usually near Hamburg or over Berlin. [0] https://twitter.com/Airbus/status/940962395463266305 https://twitter.com/Airbus/status/940962395463266305 [1] https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/f-wwae/#fcc5ca7 https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/f-wwae/#fcc5ca7
- eric_h 9y agoIt's a test flight - I think the plane needs to log hours.
- zhan_eg 9y agoScreenshot of the flight shape at the moment https://i.imgur.com/oPk8XY8.png https://i.imgur.com/oPk8XY8.png
- bhaak 9y agoApparently a test flight of an Airbus 380 by the Emirates airline according to Spiegel Online: http://www.spiegel.de/reise/aktuell/emirates-testflug-ueber-deutschland-airbus-fliegt-einen-weihnachtsbaum-a-1183167.html http://www.spiegel.de/reise/aktuell/emirates-testflug-ueber-... So, yes, looks like somebody having a blast during Advent season. :-)
- ndh2 9y agohttps://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/940959604896358400 https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/940959604896358400 > @Airbus is almost finished with their A380 Christmas tree. Will they put a star on top?
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- craftyguy 9y agoLooks like they opted to fly over Denmark and draw a penis instead.
- brador 9y agoCould be a "string" to hand the tree. Like a car air freshner.
- saalweachter 9y agoI wonder if they just couldn't get clearance to criss-cross Hamburg's airspace enough for the star.
- digi_owl 9y agoThat, or had to get out of the way for other traffic.
- StephanKletzl 9y agoAs someone who doesn't look at flight radars often, I'm always surprised by how many planes are flying simultaneously. Is there an estimation about how many more planes are possible before it gets too crowded?
- mseebach 9y agoMajor airports and some routes between clusters of major airports, such as western Europe to the US east coast are already quite crowded with several at capacity. Also, flight radar, especially at the zoomed out views, looks a lot more crowded than it really is, the airplane-icons are huge.
- ceejayoz 9y ago> Also, flight radar, especially at the zoomed out views, looks a lot more crowded than it really is, the airplane-icons are huge. Plus, you can stack them on top of each other at different altitudes.
- s0rce 9y agoWe need a 3D google earth-style rendering of the air space to capture the 3rd dimension.
- JackFr 9y agoIf you watch on a clear night from the roof of my building in Manhattan, you can see about 3-4 planes at a time lined up to land at Newark. Sometimes it seems like the Berlin airlift because they just keep coming.
- gadders 9y agoI used to see similar on the approach to Heathrow when I was fly fishing at Syon Park in West London.
- meredydd 9y agoOne of the great things about the Berlin airlift is the way that they invented a huge amount of what is now standard high-capacity aircraft handling, on incredibly short notice (and in order to accomplish something fairly heroic). This includes things like standard routes and approaches, diversion procedures, pure-IFR (instrument) operations, and more. The family resemblance between arrivals to Newark Airport and Tempelhof is not accidental. (Which reminds me, cycling down the runway at Tempelhof is still on my bucket list. I should go to Berlin this summer...)
- jcims 9y agoWhile this seems legit, it's worth noting that ADSB, the RF message protocol used for most 'live' location stats in FlightRadar24, has no form of authentication. Nevermind the network protocol weaknesses, trolling FR24 would require little more than a $300 radio and some free software.
- code4tee 9y agoYes, and it’s not just for these sites but ATC too... although that’s been true of all aviation coms and nav technologies. Someone with some radio gear and a basic understanding of how these systems work could mess things up big time. That’s why, at least in the US, unauthorized broadcasting on aviation Nav or Com frequencies is a deadly serious thing that the Feds don’t take lightly.
- erikb 9y agoI think in Germany it's just as serious.
- tscs37 9y agoIt's serious everywhere.
- gbacon 9y agoFor a much simpler threat model, the FAA is also deadly serious about laser illumination of aircraft and will involve local law enforcement and the FBI. Don’t let your buddy who got some crazy powerful laser pointer be stupid and point it toward an airplane or helicopter.
- mikeash 9y agoYou'd also be trolling the air traffic control system, which would get the attention of people you'd much rather not notice you. That doesn't prove that this is real, but think twice before trying it out....
- 9y ago
- d13 9y agoShouldn't it be "an" xmas tree?
- rayvd 9y agoDepends on if you intend it to be read as "Christmas" or "EX" mas. :)
- frandroid 9y agoXmas is pronounced "Christmas" by most people.
- Pxtl 9y agoTechnically abbreviating "Christ" as "X" is actually the letter χ or "Chi". So it shouldn't be pronounced X-mas, as it's really χ-mas. Same thing with LaTeχ, actually.
- yorwba 9y agoThe capital Chi is Χ, which is indistinguishable from X in most fonts, and even more so in handwriting.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Pxtl 9y agoYes, I was using the lowercase to make it stand out.
- ReverseCold 9y agoLaTeChi?
- Pxtl 9y agoI had a Prof who insisted in pronouncing it LaTech.
- infogulch 9y agoReminds me of last August when a 787 drew a US-sized 787 with it's flight path over 18 hours. https://www.wired.com/story/boeing-787-8-drawing-test-flight/ https://www.wired.com/story/boeing-787-8-drawing-test-flight...
- nurettin 9y agoOne HN launches drawing-cultural-symbol-with-plane-as-a-service
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoWhich gets sued into oblivion for refusing to draw a confederate flag...
- frenchie4111 9y agoCan't wait to see all the disrupt presentations talking about how their company is a DCSWPaaS
- yitchelle 9y agoCan be called "Über Doodle".
- T3RMINATED 9y agoWhy are the Green Earthers not all over this waste? Global Warming!!!! Idiots like this guy cause it, aimlessly flying, consuming fossil fuels and polluting our environment.
- nasir 9y agoWaste of fuel and adding more CO2 to the atmosphere
- nasir 9y agoreading the other comments, hopefully there is a purpose to it and this is cherry on top
- DougN7 9y agoHave you considered the time you spent typing this, the energy your computer and the HN server processing and storing it, the bytes that had to be transmitted to thousands (hundreds of thousands??) of computers around the world across who knows how many hops along the way for the routes to each of those computers, the expense of CPUs and graphics cards processing and displaying it around the world, on mobile devices, etc. Seems you've also wasted power and contributed CO2 as well? And now so have I :)
- squarefoot 9y ago"Seems you've also wasted power and contributed CO2 as well?" CO2 alone assuming there are no hot chilli involved:) edit: on a more serious note, companies don't waste fuel for no reason, so I'm sure it was a test flight which they decided to fly in a creative way to bring more eyes to the brand. People wandering around every day, every year, in elephant sized pickups doing things a small car would be enough for are a much worse source of pollution.
- throwaway0071 9y agoAre you this person? https://twitter.com/JamesNicollV/status/940964868110381057?s=17 https://twitter.com/JamesNicollV/status/940964868110381057?s...
- ygra 9y agoThis is more likely a test or qualification flight that has to happen anyway. The shape probably has little impact on CO₂ output
- deadmetheny 9y ago
- scirocco 9y agoToday in Sweden the military flew a couple of jets in xmas tree formation over Stockholm :) https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/oRpj10/darfor-flog-jas-plan-i-formation-over-stockholm https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/oRpj10/darfor-flog-jas-...
- samdoidge 9y ago*It looks like 'a couple' was correct usage - apologies! 'a couple' = 2, 'a few' would be more accurate :)
- daveFNbuck 9y agoBoth couple and few can mean either a specific number (2 for couple, 3 for few) or an indeterminate small number. They are synonyms for the second usage.
- samdoidge 9y agoI hadn't known a couple to mean more than 2, but the Cambridge dictionary does seem to agree[1].. however the Oxford Dictionaries site only seems to indicate only 2[2]. In this case, I'll update my correction ;) [1](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/couple https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/couple) [2](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/couple https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/couple)
- daveFNbuck 9y agoYou also instantly knew what the person meant by a couple because this is an extremely common usage. Oxford agrees as well, if you use their US dictionary [1]. [1](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/couple https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/couple)
- exhilaration 9y agoIn the US, "a couple" is synonymous for a "a few" or "several". One would say, "it'll take a couple of hours" or "I'll be away for a couple of days" and mean two or more. This might be specific to American English.
- tmatthewj 9y agoWhat a pleasant sight to watch on the map. But I guess the travellers won't be relishing the experience as much as we do. :-)
- devy 9y agoI wonder how much extra would it cost for this Airbus A380 test route in Xmas tree vs. a circle path?
- jdavis703 9y agoI think they have to get in a certain amount of mileage, time and different movements. Flight testing is probably something we don't want bean counters trying to skimp money on.
- HeyLaughingBoy 9y agoI wish I had saved the URL, but when the 787 was being tested, the flight test team had a public-facing website that gave a lot of very interesting information about the test protocols and how they were being run. Imagine a flight team basically waiting with bags packed, for the right atmospheric conditions to appear anywhere in the world to fly there and go through a set of test cases.
- ghostbrainalpha 9y agoIs he really drawing a Christmas tree? Or is this just another poorly executed penis drawing?
- danjoc 9y ago"plane" That's Santa Claus making a test run.
- agumonkey 9y ago#oneplanetsummit
- swordfish0321 9y agoIn america we draw dicks.
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- lerie82 9y agoThat's bad ass, Merry Christmas Germany.
- francisofascii 9y agoThis type of thing is popular with runners and cyclists. Search for "strava art" The hard part is finding roads that match your desired picture. Or findind a picture with the given roads. Planes have it easy.