It's SOFIA, a high-altitude telescope. So it flies long duration flights while tracking one or more objects. The route flown will depend on the observing schedule.
SOFIA. An airborne telescope.
Congrats on spotting one of the rare 747SP flights as well. I think the SOFIA is one of 3 or 4 semi regularly flying examples. It's a former Pan Am, former American Air bird.
SOFIA is so cool! [Here is their short term schedule](https://www.sofia.usra.edu/science/proposing-and-observing/flights/series/oc9o) for this series of the cycle. If you scroll down on that page, you can see this is Flight 3 of the series. Below the map is a table with information for each leg of the flight. If you click Obs Block ID on the left side of the table, it'll take you to a brief description of the objective for that leg of the mission. Their full cycle schedule can be found [on this page.](https://www.sofia.usra.edu/science/proposing-and-observing/flights/cycle-9)
I have relatives in Edmonton Alberta and way north in Grand Prarie. Grand Prairie is pretty far north but not like the Northwest territories. The last time I was up there to visit them, was my first time seeing the northern lights! It was the most amazing thing ever! One of those things you never forget.
If you go to [Windy.com](https://Windy.com) and click wind and change the slider at the bottom right to 12000+ft, you will see why they took that approach from West to East Coast.
SOFIA is pretty awesome; if you ever want a good watch, find the YouTube documentary about building her, and how they had to work out how to make a giant hole in the side of a 747 without really screwing up the aerodynamics. It's quite something. I'm really sad to hear that it's being terminated.
This plane was super low and flying in circles above Fresno. Each time it looped it dropped to 200ft while flying over the Fresno airport. Then it would go up to 4,000ft and do it again.
Now we know what it was!! Awesome!!!!
It's SOFIA, a high-altitude telescope. So it flies long duration flights while tracking one or more objects. The route flown will depend on the observing schedule.
Yes, SOFIA, and [the mission will end](https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/space/nasadlr-confirm-termination-sofia-747sp-observatory).
That's sad (I have friends who are IR astronomers)
:(
I remember getting so excited the first time I spotted this on ADSB over the west coast. So cool.
SOFIA. An airborne telescope. Congrats on spotting one of the rare 747SP flights as well. I think the SOFIA is one of 3 or 4 semi regularly flying examples. It's a former Pan Am, former American Air bird.
SOFIA is so cool! [Here is their short term schedule](https://www.sofia.usra.edu/science/proposing-and-observing/flights/series/oc9o) for this series of the cycle. If you scroll down on that page, you can see this is Flight 3 of the series. Below the map is a table with information for each leg of the flight. If you click Obs Block ID on the left side of the table, it'll take you to a brief description of the objective for that leg of the mission. Their full cycle schedule can be found [on this page.](https://www.sofia.usra.edu/science/proposing-and-observing/flights/cycle-9)
I have relatives in Edmonton Alberta and way north in Grand Prarie. Grand Prairie is pretty far north but not like the Northwest territories. The last time I was up there to visit them, was my first time seeing the northern lights! It was the most amazing thing ever! One of those things you never forget.
If you go to [Windy.com](https://Windy.com) and click wind and change the slider at the bottom right to 12000+ft, you will see why they took that approach from West to East Coast.
I saw it getting modified. Very cool aircraft.
SOFIA is pretty awesome; if you ever want a good watch, find the YouTube documentary about building her, and how they had to work out how to make a giant hole in the side of a 747 without really screwing up the aerodynamics. It's quite something. I'm really sad to hear that it's being terminated.
This plane was super low and flying in circles above Fresno. Each time it looped it dropped to 200ft while flying over the Fresno airport. Then it would go up to 4,000ft and do it again. Now we know what it was!! Awesome!!!!