Visualized: Boeing 747-8 makes its longest flight to date, writes name in the sky

Visualized: Boeing 747-8 makes its longest flight to date, writes name in the sky:

It's always fun to write your name on things -- chalkboards, diplomas, speeding tickets, yellow snow... you know, the usual. The folks at Boeing couldn't agree more, which is why they tasked 747-8 pilots with writing the jet's name in the sky on a flight test across the US. What could be called the "747-8 wuz here" mission is designed to test the outer limits of the jumbo jet in a max endurance operations test. Taking off yesterday morning from Seattle's Paine Field, the jet flew across 18 states in a 747 pattern until it landed on the west coast a little after midnight -- 17 total hours of mayhem. It seems like everything went swimmingly, which means the brand spanking new jet will be sold to Cargolux, a ginormous cargo airline, later this year. The jet writing does somewhat resemble a drunken righty's attempt at left-handed writing, but hey, who are we to judge?

Visualized: Boeing 747-8 makes its longest flight to date, writes name in the sky originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 02:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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