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Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

455 points| kylebarron | 8 years ago |blog.alaskaair.com | reply

116 comments

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[+] ethbro|8 years ago|reply
Does anyone have pointers on where I could get an estimate on average maintenence costs / flight hour & fuel costs for a Boeing 737-900ER?

Interested in working up a rough number for how much this cost to make happen. Can't imagine it was profitable.

And very cool!

Edit: Per Boeing [1], they quote $151 / flight hour in actual service on a 737-800. Random site [2] gives fuel on a 737-900ER as 0.17 km per litre / 0.40 NM per gallon.

Edit2: After some digging, here's the flight track: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA9671/history/20170821...

[1] http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_15/costs_...

[2] https://www.aircraftcompare.com/helicopter-airplane/Boeing-7...

[+] jrochkind1|8 years ago|reply
Of course it wasn't profitable, it was promotional. Compare to marketing budget for TV ads and such.
[+] stordoff|8 years ago|reply
> Can't imagine it was profitable.

The comments clarify that "This was an invite-only charter, special for the eclipse!", and the images show members of the press, so that was probably never the goal.

[+] mikeash|8 years ago|reply
That $151/hour is only maintenance. Fuel, crew, and depreciation will add substantial amounts on top of that.
[+] limeblack|8 years ago|reply
Here is a picture I took after messing with the aperture and having quite a long lense https://i.stack.imgur.com/YvyJB.jpg from Robinsville NC. I swear you can see stars in there but could be wrong.
[+] DigitalJack|8 years ago|reply
Mercury was visible to the naked eye, but I didn’t see much else. Was not really looking for stars though.

Nice shot, btw.

[+] marcosscriven|8 years ago|reply
I travelled last minute London -> Chicago -> Portland -> Salem to see my first total eclipse. The Saturday night flight to Portland was packed with excited passengers, all talking about the eclipse. The captain (Spirit Airlines) even announced the flight as the 'Eclipse Express', to cheers from everyone.
[+] njarboe|8 years ago|reply
I was watching the eclipse in Corvallis and, about 10 minutes before totality, a plane jetted around at high altitude and left a contrail[1]. The new cloud, in the otherwise perfectly clear sky, began to drift toward the sun and I thought, "There could be few better symbols of the attitude that some of %0.0001 have to the rest of us than this." Fortunately, even though the contrail did drift over the sun during totality[1], it was very thin (and dark) and did not distract and the event in the least.

I'm glad Alaska Air did this flight over the Pacific and not where they would distract hundreds of thousands of people with their flight. Anyone know how to find out what flight (or private jet) was the one I saw was? Would be an interesting fact to add to my memory of the event.

Please forgive the many artifacts from this smartphone camera.

[1] Before totality (https://njarboe.com/eclipse/beforeTotality.jpg)

[2] During totality (https://njarboe.com/eclipse/totality.jpg). This photo was right at the beginning of totality and in no way captures what I saw, but does show where the contrail ended up. I was more interested in experiencing the eclipse than trying to get a photo.

[+] ryanwaggoner|8 years ago|reply
Fascinating that you have no idea what flight it was, but you immediately chalked it up to another example of "the 0.0001%" harming you.

That's pretty ridiculous. For all you know, it was on some kind of humanitarian mission. Statistically, of course, it was probably just a routine commercial jet full of average people.

What's crazy to me is someone on the ground in a small town thinking that the global ATC system should route around them (and apparently all small towns and random gatherings of people) so that they won't miss seeing an eclipse.

[+] johnpowell|8 years ago|reply
My mom drove me up from Eugene. We planned to go all the way to Corvallis but we saw a lot of people out so we stopped short and parked in a field.

And I did see that plane and the contrail.

If anyone is curious what it looked like when recording with a iPhone6 propped against a Snapple bottle on the roof of my mom's car. Here you go.

https://stfudamnit.com/ryan/eclipse.mp4

edit.. It looks like you can see the contrail on the right in the video.

[+] evincarofautumn|8 years ago|reply
Strange, I was between Corvallis and Albany and don’t recall that at all. I must have been too distracted by the experience to notice much.

We put on Dark Side of the Moon as thematic music. By pure accident, the climactic finish of the album, “Eclipse”, just happened to start playing as totality hit, and ended as the “diamond ring” appeared. I’ll never forget those two minutes as long as I live.

[+] ktRolster|8 years ago|reply
This photo was right at the beginning of totality and in no way captures what I saw,

It amazes me how inadequate every photo ever taken is compared to actually seeing the eclipse. They just don't capture the beauty of the corona.

[+] kukanani|8 years ago|reply
I was on this flight, and it was incredible! AMA
[+] rdslw|8 years ago|reply
Who sit on the left side of rows?
[+] senatorobama|8 years ago|reply
What was it like EXITING totality? Was it like God said, let there be light?
[+] gruez|8 years ago|reply
How much do flights like these cost?
[+] kukanani|8 years ago|reply
You couldn't buy a ticket, invite and media only.
[+] Larrikin|8 years ago|reply
How much did the guest have to pay?
[+] zeep|8 years ago|reply
How many planes crossed the total solar eclipse's path? probably a bunch...
[+] astdb|8 years ago|reply
Concorde (or the Tu-144) could've kept up with the shadow
[+] dmovsis|8 years ago|reply
But it`s kinda very beautiful !!
[+] coss|8 years ago|reply
God that music...
[+] nerd7473|8 years ago|reply
Who's ready for the next one?
[+] whipoodle|8 years ago|reply
Did people really call it the Great American Eclipse? I hadn't seen that phrase before this.
[+] kukanani|8 years ago|reply
Yep, I think it was a Twitter trending topic.
[+] brndnmtthws|8 years ago|reply
Is anyone else bothered by the term "American" eclipse? I don't think astronomical events have any notion of nationality.
[+] rflrob|8 years ago|reply
Do you think that naming things the "Tunguska event" or the "Chelyabinsk meteor" unduly favor Russian sites? It's an accurate descriptor of where it happened. You could, I suppose, take issue with the "Great" adjective, but compared to the '79 eclipse, where totality was visible only in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota, this one was much more accessible.
[+] jedberg|8 years ago|reply
It was called that because it hit all of North America, and very little outside of North America. It's not really so much nationalistic as it is descriptive.
[+] mikeash|8 years ago|reply
It's a short, accurate description of where it happened....
[+] colecut|8 years ago|reply
It was the first Total Solar Eclipse to be seen over North America since the 70's...
[+] rdiddly|8 years ago|reply
I object to the phrase "great American" because it's hackneyed & trite.
[+] erAck|8 years ago|reply
Stupid title indeed. On the other hand it certainly eclipsed America. At least part thereof.
[+] jrochkind1|8 years ago|reply
yeah, me too. I even saw it _in_ the U.S., but I didn't see American nothing, I saw an astronomical event that has nothing to do with borders.