Ok, so this isn't quite a defense-related post, but it's Friday and this is pretty damned cool. The screenshot above is from FlightAware and it shows the flight-path made by one of Boeing's 787 test jets during a 19 + hour test flight last night and this morning. Yup, the jet flew in a pattern that formed Boeing's corporate logo -- inherited from McDonnell Douglas when the two companies merged in the '90s -- in the skies over the Great Plains states (what kind of pun was that!?).
The systems functionality and reliability flight of 787 ZA236 -- that spanned half the continental U.S. -- is one of the final test flights to certify the pairing of the 787 airframe with those massive GE GEnx-1B engines. If you look closely, you can also see the numbers 787 traced out in the flight path to the left of the company's logo. This sky-branding a Boeing trick that has been used before with 747-8, according to Flight's Jon Ostrower.
Happy weekend!
