
A plane flying over Germany drawing a Christmas tree - Jamie452
https://www.flightradar24.com/AIB232E/fd1fd63
======
bhaak
Apparently a test flight of an Airbus 380 by the Emirates airline according to
Spiegel Online: [http://www.spiegel.de/reise/aktuell/emirates-testflug-
ueber-...](http://www.spiegel.de/reise/aktuell/emirates-testflug-ueber-
deutschland-airbus-fliegt-einen-weihnachtsbaum-a-1183167.html)

So, yes, looks like somebody having a blast during Advent season. :-)

------
ndh2
[https://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?_

~~~
craftyguy
Looks like they opted to fly over Denmark and draw a penis instead.

~~~
saalweachter
I wonder if they just couldn't get clearance to criss-cross Hamburg's airspace
enough for the star.

~~~
digi_owl
That, or had to get out of the way for other traffic.

------
jcims
While 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
Yes, 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
I think in Germany it's just as serious.

~~~
tscs37
It's serious everywhere.

------
zhan_eg
Screenshot of the flight shape at the moment
[https://i.imgur.com/oPk8XY8.png](https://i.imgur.com/oPk8XY8.png)

------
pizzetta
That'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-r...](http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/08/boeing-plane-flies-test-route-
in-shape-of-a-plane.html)

------
scirocco
Today 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-...](https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/oRpj10/darfor-flog-jas-plan-i-
formation-over-stockholm)

~~~
samdoidge
*It looks like 'a couple' was correct usage - apologies!

'a couple' = 2, 'a few' would be more accurate :)

~~~
daveFNbuck
Both 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
I 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))

~~~
exhilaration
In 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.

~~~
jcoffland
Where I come from (US) a couple means 2.

~~~
daveFNbuck
You could also have said that where you come from, couple means two people in
a romantic relationship. This doesn't mean that it can't also have other
definitions. Every US English dictionary I checked has "an indefinite small
number" listed as one of the definitions, and that's a much more common usage
in my (US) experience than using couple to mean exactly 2.

------
kharms
Speculating 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.

~~~
VonGallifrey
It 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)

------
infogulch
Reminds 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/)

------
francisofascii
This 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.

------
StephanKletzl
As 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?

~~~
JackFr
If 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.

~~~
meredydd
One 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...)

~~~
tnolet
You should. It’s very nice there during summer and there are a ton of pretty
cool and informative info panels on the history of Tempelhof and the airlift.
Bring a grill and a kite!

------
tmatthewj
What 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
I wonder how much extra would it cost for this Airbus A380 test route in Xmas
tree vs. a circle path?

~~~
jdavis703
I 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
I 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.

------
swordfish0321
In america we draw dicks.

------
lerie82
That's bad ass, Merry Christmas Germany.

------
agumonkey
#oneplanetsummit

------
d13
Shouldn't it be "an" xmas tree?

~~~
Pxtl
Technically 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
The capital Chi is Χ, which is indistinguishable from X in most fonts, and
even more so in handwriting.

~~~
Pxtl
Yes, I was using the lowercase to make it stand out.

------
danjoc
"plane"

That's Santa Claus making a test run.

------
nurettin
One HN launches drawing-cultural-symbol-with-plane-as-a-service

~~~
frenchie4111
Can't wait to see all the disrupt presentations talking about how their
company is a DCSWPaaS

------
nasir
Waste of fuel and adding more CO2 to the atmosphere

~~~
DougN7
Have 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
"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.

------
staticelf
Anyone know the reason for this? To promote this website? :P

~~~
ilogik
I assume it's a test flight....other wise it would a very expensive thing to
do

~~~
tarmon
Well it is still a very expensive thing to do :)

~~~
jdavis703
Well yes, but not testing an aircraft and having it crash and kill people is
likely even more expensive.

------
nowherecat
Is 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.

~~~
rdtsc
> 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-...](http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/17/politics/navy-aircrew-
obscene-skywriting/index.html)

~~~
jdcarter
"In case there was any doubt, the US Navy has confirmed that there is 'zero
training value' in drawing penises in the sky."

------
ghostbrainalpha
Is he really drawing a Christmas tree? Or is this just another poorly executed
penis drawing?

