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Visualizing Flight Patterns Over The U.S.
An original piece by Wired magazine presents some amazing visualizations of the various traffic routes by different airplanes over the United States. The distincition in the long-hauls versus the puddle jumpers is quite notable. Also, air traffic controllers are very likely underpaid.
The graphic below visually compares differences in flight patterns
between the 10 most active aircraft models being monitored by the FAA
on August 12, 2008 over a 24-hour period. Check out the difference in
range between the Boeing 738, capable of traveling 3,060 nautical miles
in a flight, and the Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ2), which at 980
nautical miles is a puddle jumper.
And here are the unique flight paths by plane type:
Boeing 737:
Boeing 737-300:
Boeing 737-800:
Boeing 757-200:
MD82:
Airbus 319:
Airbus 320:
Embraer 145:

CRJ 2:
CRJ 7:
And all the flights. Who wants to be an airtraffic controller?
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and here is the GLF 5
http://flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/GLF5
and if you look closely a BofA GLF5 (N662CP) returning from Moscow
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N662CP
Nice link.
Now you can track Timmy and Lloyd and all the other knobs as they jet around doing their dirty work.
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I think I will bring my telephoto lens and go see who gets off. IAH is only 20 minutes away for me, which means I still have time to get a sandwich. I will let you know if it is Ken Lay.
...unexpectedly...
N662CP
(registration) (photos)
BANK OF AMERICA NA
HOUSTON TX Get notified of
this flight's activity.
Aircraft Gulfstream Aerospace Gulfstream V (twin-jet) (GLF5/Q - track or photos)
Origin Vnukovo (UUWW / VKO - track or info)
Destination Houston Bush Int'ctl (KIAH - track or info)
Other flights between these airports
Route n/a
Date Friday, Jan 15, 2010
Duration 12 hours 35 minutes
Progress 1 hour 8 minutes left
11 hours 26 minutes
Status En Route (5502 miles down; 475 miles to go)
Scheduled Actual/Estimated
Departure 07:00AM UTC 07:00AM UTC
Arrival 12:20PM CST 01:35PM CST
Speed 444 kts
Altitude Unspecified 47000 feet (track log)
Stinger?
It might be interesting to find out where Gov. Sanford really went during his absence a while back:
http://flightaware.com/resources/registration/N1SC
---
Ken Lay? ROFL!
One of 106 aircraft registered to BofA. These are leased from, not operated by Bofa.
Great Al Qaeda recruiting tool...
You are a jerk off
"We Just Landed"
- Kenny Tarmac.
There are 106 aircraft in the FAA registry showing Bank of America NA as the owner. BofA is not operating these aircraft. They are leased.
What goes up. Must come down. This includes markets - someone tell Wall Street, will yah?
A shoutout to Atlanta, GA. Home of the busiest, largest, best airport in the world. And thats not sarcasm, I've been spoiled growing up next to it.
Scariest too....like Monday mornings with the 2 hour security line!
The price of mobility
What would be cool would be to weight that data set with passenger density or passenger flight mile calculations and compare it to various periods of history such as September 10, 2001 versus November 10, 2001; March 2007 versus March 2009, etc.
Conceivably, you could do this by expanding the width of each line segment.
As it think about it, it would also be cool to see that same data set overlayed with revenue per flight mile.
Which also leads me to wonder how many of those segments were flown by bankrupt corporations at the time -- if you marked all those segments in bright orange, it would look like a big stringy pumpkin.
+1
Durden, that's a cool post.
Ditto. Especially amusing is the mention of the ability to track the flights of your competitors. :)
TYLER / Do you have any LINKS to download these files in a JPEG or another printable or downloadable file format? We have a few pilots who would probably enjot something like these printed and framed. Thanks buddy...
Looking at the last photo maybe there is something we can learn from this? Cool hole in the west over area 51 no fly zone in Nevada. What is that hole in the SW? Roswell, NM? Just making an observation.
Maybe White Sands, NM?
yea white sand missile range and Holoman AFB
I think there's a huge AF training and testing facility.
Also, alien technology.
There are two "holes" in the far SW that are next to each other...assuming they are not simply coincidences...
Yes, one is most likely Nellis AF Base/Area 51...obviously.
The other is most likely Edwards AF Base in the Mohave Desert area.
I also see one that is maybe in Texas..not sure what that is.
China Lake, whose airspace includes Edwards...if I am not mistaken.
I think N662CP could be a Conoco-Phillips jet not BoA http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5938313
You are correct.
"N662CP, new reg for the database...Owned by Cononco Phillips."
That makes more sense that B0A heading to IAH. Oh well, so much for my Friday photo shoot.
...unexpectedly...
Yo.... that's cool as all get out... thanks for posting that!
That's pretty awesome. Thanks for posting.
The "long-hauls" are flying what's called "Great Circle" or "Rhumb Line" route. It's the shortest distance across a sphere.
Regardless, pretty cool pics
Lame post, lamer comments.
Its getting harder day by day to separate junk from jewels on ZH. I am a regular here - didn't bother to sign in.
duplicate
You can't separate the junk from the jewels? That says more about you than about ZH.
Meh, it's all handled by computer algorithms. What could go wrong?
That is why you hedge.
With parachutes.
What would happen if I tried to carry-on a parachute anyways? Think I could get it through TSA?
Odd statistic, 100% of commerical jet crashes happen during landing.
If you bring a parachute, TSA is going to assume you are planning on getting off early... like DB Cooper.
Getting out of an airplane at 500 knots and over 10K feet would be fatal more times than not.
"What is that hole in the SW? Roswell, NM? Just making an observation."
From just north of El Paso, TX extending half-way up the state of New Mexico is a huge chunk of Restricted Airspace. The southern end is the Fort Bliss Maneuver Training Area (Air Defense Artillery training going on -- Patriot Missile, Stingers, etc). The northern end is for White Sands Missile Range/Holloman AFB (lots of military aircraft training). The Trinity Site is also in this area.
I believe Holloman is also a nuclear hedge stockpile with the squadron of B-2s housed there. Seems like a good enough reason by itself for restricted airspace.
What's the big deal? There is only 5504 flights aloft right now at speeds between 150 to 550 MPh. Who knows what the state of mind of the pilots are and most of them seem to be concentrated on the east coast.
Nothing to it.
I'm never flying again.
Now compare their pay and the split second decisions they have to make along with the stakes both financially and in human costs with the "we really work hard" multi-million dollar bankers who are on a mission from God.
BTW did the aircraft controllers ever get a complete computer upgrade from the 1960s crap they had been using as recently as 20 years ago? I stopped paying attention when I stopped flying many years ago.
I wonder what the processing power of a 1960s based system would be with say a 1990s or a current desktop system. Would the kids game consoles be able to control the entire airspace? That's a scary thought.
So, no more long distance travel for you then, since per-mile safety is higher on air travel than ground. You should worry more about the risks of being out on the road.
Awesome work Tyler. If your motto in life is to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you put Zero Hedge towards the top of the list.
The learning curve....flatten it or perish.
Check out the diurnal flight traffic worldwide.
This is kind of old but it still scares me shitless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XBwjQsOEeg
Great post, Tyler.
Each flight producing TONS of pollution...Hare +1...Turtle -1
All managed by an air traffic control system that hasn't changed much in 40 years.
and... who is flying 737's to Hawaii... they must be flying on fumes by final approach.
'who is flying 737's to Hawaii... they must be flying on fumes by final approach'
that'd be air pacific from nadi fiji- it's the longest flight route for that plane type. i did it recently and it's REALLY uncomfortable- small plane for 6 plus hours.
Never knew .. Puerto Rico (?) was such air traffic hub, looks like there's more (?) flight to there than to europe...?
...What's happening in there?
It is a hub for smaller aircraft flying to all those little sun drenched islands in the Carib.
Be sure to pass that on to #40.
I'm an engineer for Boeing, and I have to say, seeing all those visualizations, AND THEN REALIZING that isn't even everything ... there's 747's, A340s, 777's, and 767s out there and you get something EVEN MORE crazy!
Yes, ATC jobs are woefully underpaid.
What about flights to China? I'm sure you could dig up a report somewhere telling us how unsafe they are...
nice visual. mercy buckets, TD.
total aside, didn't the original Wired mag article show some significant traffic going to some empty place in, I think, the northern pacific...like this place does not exist on maps...wondering if I mis-remember or if there is a reasonable explantion why planes are flying to nowhere.
Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi is suspected of delaying the release of donation funds she had garnered for victims of the 2008 Szechuan earthquake during her fundraising activities at the Cannes Film Festival that same year.
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??Zhang’s fiance, multi-millionaire Vivi Nevo, had reportedly set up the Zhang Ziyi Foundation on her behalf in the United States to conduct fundraising activities for the earthquake victims.
??
??Citing information from Nevo’s close friend in Hong Kong, Chinese media reports alleged that the Foundation’s donation funds, earmarked for the Chinese Red Cross Foundation of at least$2 million, were channelled into Zhang’s personal overseas account and remained there for almost 18 months after her fundraising efforts at the film festival.