
Boeing #12 - beef3333
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BOE12
======
nostromo
Yes, this was a real flight.

Here are some progress pics from earlier today:

[http://i.imgur.com/R1kERlg.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/R1kERlg.jpg)

[http://i.imgur.com/YNMNnJr.png](http://i.imgur.com/YNMNnJr.png)

More info for the curious: [http://www.geekwire.com/2014/boeings-new-seahawks-
themed-747...](http://www.geekwire.com/2014/boeings-new-seahawks-
themed-747-takes-first-flight-12thman-pattern/)

~~~
gadders
From the article:

"We’ve been hearing a few people complain that Boeing is “wasting fuel,” by
flying the 747-8 Freighter today in the “12″ pattern."

Jeez. People really will complain about anything these days.

~~~
bnegreve
Well, they do what they want, but three hours and 20 minutes with a 747, does
sound like a waste of fuel to me.

~~~
spaceborn
Are you implying that every single passenger aboard a normal commercial flight
is there for some absolutely necessary, useful purpose? I'd wager not, in
which case a large quantity of the fuel used in the normal course of
operations is also 'wasted' \- or, at least, used sub-optimally - the
passengers being the only reason the flights are undertaken in the first
place.

~~~
bnegreve
No, I am not. You're right, nothing is absolutely necessary, there is not
point arguing about this.

But let say that if I had to cancel one flight to save money / fuel, I would
cancel this one rather than a standard flight.

~~~
BlackDeath3
But dude, football! And the twelfth man! And stuff!

>You're right, nothing is absolutely necessary, there is not point arguing
about this.

Don't you hate when arguments get to this point?

You know what else isn't a waste of fuel? Dumping thousands of gallons of it
onto the ground and burning it. I mean, who doesn't enjoy a good bonfire,
right? You cannot prove that I don't!

Apparently, this route was the result of a test flight. Really the only
legitimate explanation for something like this.

------
hemancuso
Also, Boeing Logo:
[http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BOE236/history/20120209/2...](http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BOE236/history/20120209/2100Z/KBFI/KBFI)

~~~
ceejayoz
19 hours, 12 minutes. Not bad!

------
ars
How do they manage to make the lines so straight? Isn't the earth round? Do
they know the exact projection flightaware uses and can match it?

Isn't it hard to constantly fly a slightly curved route?

~~~
TylerE
The flight computers in a Boeing can track with an error of less than 500ft
except in the most turbulent conditions. It's not a problem.

~~~
smackfu
I think the premise was that the actual route flown might have been much more
complicated than it looks, if the map projection used by the aircraft wasn't
the same as that used by the tracking service.

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optimiz3
Not normally a sports fan, but living in Seattle while the Seahawks go to the
Superbowl is tons of fun just because of all small ways the various techie
industries are coming together.

E.g. seismic monitoring of CenturyLink Stadium (which is engineered to be one
of the loudest), Boeing putting on this stunt, office buildings with "12"
spelled out over multiple floors, 12-cent Starbucks.

Seattle is just a fun city to live in.

~~~
codereflection
As someone who also lives in Seattle and is also not a sports fan, I have to
agree.

~~~
adamsrog
As someone who lives in Seattle and is a huge sports fan, this is incredibly
awesome!

~~~
emhart
You three should get together for the game :)

------
davidw
Always happy to see these guys in the news. The site is powered by Apache
Rivet, which I helped work on. It never saw wide adoption, so the one big user
always makes me pleased that it did take off somewhere.

~~~
aaronbrethorst
oof, Tcl. props, but oof.

~~~
davidw
Tcl is a very nice language in many ways, both in terms of the language
itself, and the extremely solid implementation.

[http://antirez.com/articoli/tclmisunderstood.html](http://antirez.com/articoli/tclmisunderstood.html)

~~~
9999
Great article on Tcl, I wasn't familiar with it before but the event driven
model and the ease of network programming is really appealing.

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terpua
This is dedicated to the Seahawks' 12th man :)

[http://deadspin.com/a-seahawks-747-is-currently-flying-a-
gia...](http://deadspin.com/a-seahawks-747-is-currently-flying-a-
giant-12-over-wa-1512675266)

------
kilroy123
A non-sports-fan-geek, I have no idea what the #12 means.

~~~
BlackDeath3
It's the way that a lot of people live vicariously through sports superstars
by fantasizing about being part of the team.

~~~
gertef
No, it's not. You are describing BIRGing, or somethings. #12 refers to
supporting the team, including making noise in the stadium to affect the
outcome of plays.

~~~
BlackDeath3
I didn't even know what BIRGing was before you posted your comment. I know
what #12 is _meant_ to refer to. My observation is that "BIRGing" often
accompanies the whole "#12" thing.

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alecsmart1
Never thought companies would do such things. Expedia did something as well-

[http://m.imgur.com/a/ML3wn](http://m.imgur.com/a/ML3wn)

~~~
mikeash
You may or may not be aware, but this stuff is generally done on test flights
where they need to be in the air for a certain amount of time but have no
specific location they need to do it. Might as well spell something out in the
sky while you're at it. I doubt Boeing would do this sort of thing otherwise,
since it costs tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of dollars to keep a 747
in the air for hours.

~~~
tomfakes
They painted the plane too - so they clearly put some money into this in
addition to what was needed for a test flight

[https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-
frc1/t31/1...](https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-
frc1/t31/1622387_10152613979804199_918949276_o.jpg)

~~~
chaz
Boeing a sponsor of the Seahawks, and the aircraft is a freighter owned by
Boeing and used for testing (equipment? possibly used to haul parts?). The
livery doesn't appear to be just for the Superbowl, so it's probably a
permanent marketing/PR piece for their local city.

[http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2014-01-29-Boeing-747-8-Freighte...](http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2014-01-29-Boeing-747-8-Freighter-
Painted-in-Seattle-Seahawks-Livery)

~~~
donavanm
> The livery doesn't appear to be just for the Superbowl

It's new. There's some youtube footage of the same aircraft doing test flights
a few months back. Plain white, and weathered, fuselage and tail.

~~~
chaz
I meant that the livery is evergreen, and isn't "Good luck at Super Bowl
XLVIII!" They can fly it for years and it won't be dated.

> Plain white, and weathered

Maybe it needed a paint job anyway.

------
amaks
What an awesome gesture. Go Seahawks!

~~~
samstave
What an awesomely lame waste.

~~~
jzwinck
You're right, they should take passengers on point A to point A test flights.
Want to volunteer? No meals on board, and you stand a slight chance of dying,
but it's better than surfing the Internet!

------
kartikkumar
Brilliant advertising for Boeing. In the true spirit of what the Super Bowl is
really about.

------
staunch
Curious what that flight would cost.

~~~
InclinedPlane
Net? Probably nothing. Boeing has lots of test flights to do just to rack up
hours of operation and so forth so a flight like this easily fits into their
budget of flights they have to do anyway.

~~~
alexeisadeski3
Okay, so gross then?

~~~
recharge
747-800 burns about 2,900 gal of fuel per hour at cruise altitude and speed.
This was done at 12,000 feet which probably doubled the fuel consumption.
Without accounting for takeoff/climb fuel, we're looking at around 32,000
gallons of jet fuel. Cheapest fuel BFI is 5.59/gal so a good estimate for the
total bill would be $178,880.00.

~~~
bulte-rs
And you can almost double that number to take t/o and landing into account.

------
joshmlewis
For everyone who's trying to say this was a waste of fuel please think about
the purpose of test flights. In this instance they were testing a new
freighter variant. How else do you expect to test and tune new aircraft/parts?
Besides it's Boeings money to waste even if it was.

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jessaustin
I realize it's the high desert, so few people live there, but I'm surprised
all that airspace was open for such a flight. Aren't there any military
installations around?

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zw123456
It reminds me of the old Tex Johnson 737 Barrel role.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_khhzuFlE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_khhzuFlE)

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c141charlie
Boeing should have flown this route this over Denver, Colorado.

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mynameishere
So anyway, if there's anyone else here who doesn't give the slightest fuck
about football, and was wondering what this references:

[http://msn.foxsports.com/buzzer/story/daily-buzz-12th-man-
in...](http://msn.foxsports.com/buzzer/story/daily-buzz-12th-man-in-the-
sky-013014?cmpid=msn%3Afoxsports%3Aansfox11)

...yep, total rubbish. But at least the Climate Change (LLC, TM, Patents
Pending) we've been hearing about gets a boost from it. One plus is that it
gives all of us non-interested people an interest: Whoever is playing against
Seattle (Denver, I think) really needs to win this one.

------
yawz
Go Broncos!!! :)

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gtani
I can confirm that #12 is still flying aimlessly around Snohomish County (or
was, a couple hours ago)

------
era86
Go Hawks!

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karrog
Did they actually pay people to do this ?

------
middleclick
How?

~~~
hemancuso
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System)

------
throwaway98
what a waste of fossil fuels

~~~
bluthru
Knowing nothing about aviation, I would guess this was a test flight that had
to happen anyway.

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catmanjan
Haha, troll pilot/navigator?

------
fnayr
When you have a cheating team, you having nothing else to hold onto but the
12.

~~~
tomasien
Yes, the Seattle Seahawks are the only team taking PEDs in the NFL. Side note:
at least 2 of those suspensions were actually for narcotic drugs not PEDS,
including Brandon Browner who is now suspended, leaving them without their
second best corner. His offense? Smoking pot - while playing in the CFL. 4
years ago.

Let's call it even.

~~~
lotharbot
It's worth noting that the Broncos' best linebacker Von Miller was also
suspended for 6 games for smoking pot (prior to it being legalized in
Colorado) and then trying to cheat the drug test. Stupidity is not unique to
any one team.

~~~
tomasien
True - I'm actually assuming this is a 49ers fan commenting, so I wasn't
making a comment in relation to Von Miller. To be fair, Browner is being
suspended an entire YEAR for something he did before he was in the NFL that is
now legal in the state he lives in and did NOT try to cover it up. Amazing.

~~~
adamsrog
As a life-long Seahawks fan and long-time season ticket holder, I'll correct
some misconceptions.

First off, Browner was in the NFL prior to the incident. He actually started
with the Broncos as an undrafted free agent out of college, then broke his arm
in training camp and was ultimately cut. Unable to latch on with another NFL
team, he started playing in Canada and was there for several years. When Pete
Carroll was hired as the coach in Seattle, he inherited a lackluster roster
and was looking to upgrade talent. He remembered Browner from Pac-10 (now
Pac-12) college days (Browner played for Oregon State University, Pete Carroll
coached USC), and gave him a try out. Browner made the team, became a starter.

After he was cut from Denver, he was reportedly broke, sleeping on friends
couches and there was no reliable way to contact him (no cell phone). Once
you're a member of the NFL player's union, you're obligated to take drug
tests. What Browner didn't know (and most everyone, for that matter) was that
unless you file your retirement papers, you're still under obligation to take
the drug tests. Browner was supposed to take the drug tests, but without any
way to contact him, he wasn't able to do so and didn't realize he was missing
them. Missing a drug test automatically places one into "stage-3 offender"
status, which basically means that if you fail any sort of drug test, you're
automatically banned from the NFL (but can apply for reinstatement after a
year - which is almost always granted).

So, what happened was is that he smoked weed and failed the test. Because he
was placed in stage-3 due to his missed drug tests while he was in Canada,
this failed drug test means he is suspended for a year and can apply for
reinstatement after his suspension is up. It is devastating to him because he
was on track to get a lucrative contract, as he is an above-average cornerback
in the NFL. Now he will enter free-agency suspended for the better part of
next year, and at the age 30 (which doesn't bode well for NFL players).

I love Browner and hope they get it sorted out. I've watched him play for
years: he went to my alma mater and plays for my favorite NFL team.

Can't believe I just posted about sports on HN...

~~~
tomasien
Fantastic post. What an ordeal.

