All White 747 with red rectangle painted on bottom of aircraft?

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rharshberger

rharshberger

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Today at our local launch near Pasco, WA we observed an overflight of an all white 747 (4 engines, with upturned wingtips) that had a red rectangle (with white center) painted on the bottom in an area about as long as the wing root. At first we thought it might have been the 747 Supertanker aerial fire fighting tanker, but all pictures of that plane show a large amount of red color on the nose and underside (a fancy paint job). A minute or so later another aircraft possibly a 767/777/787 (two engines) also painted all white only without the red on the underside flew over along the same path as the previous one.

The question does anyone recognize these aircraft? We were unable to read the tail numbers, I am thinking they may have been from the Boeing facilities on the west side (Seattle area).
 
The 747 sounds like it was from Emirates Airlines. They have a big red rectangle like you described with a white Emirates logo in the center.

As for the same path as the other aircraft, the might have all been on the same departure procedure.
 
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watheyak said:
The 747 sounds like it was from Emirates Airlines. They have a big red rectangle like you described with a white Emirates logo in the center.

As for the same path as the other aircraft, the might have all been on the same departure procedure.
Click to expand...

The red rectangle was squared off corners and no logo, also Emirates aircraft seem to generally have multicolored tails. The aircraft we saw today were at about 20,000' (guesstimate) and I was able to track them with a pair of 10x binoculars.
 
Are you sure that it was a 747 and not an A340/A380? Have the pictures been posted somewhere?
 
eggplant said:
Are you sure that it was a 747 and not an A340/A380? Have the pictures been posted somewhere?
Click to expand...

I wished I had been able to photograph it. I believe it to be a 747 but not totally sure. The winglets didn't match the A380 and the body appeared stockier than a A340. Hence my guess these two different aircraft were potentially from Boeings Seattle area.
 
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No, that was NOT a test run for Project Crossbow. Forget what you saw, or else you will be liberated.

(Ten points for getting the movie reference)
 
LW Bercini said:
No, that was NOT a test run for Project Crossbow. Forget what you saw, or else you will be liberated.

(Ten points for getting the movie reference)
Click to expand...

Liberate? Do you mean liquidated?

Just watched Real Genius on Friday night. Great movie.
 
The doomsday plane is a 747 that is mostly white. It has a blue stripe running from nose to tail and has United States of America written above the stripe. However, I don't recall seeing a red rectangle on the belly when I see it flying around Wright-Patterson AFB. The last time I saw it was near Groundhogs Day and I thought seeing the plane meant another 6 weeks of nuclear winter.
 
rharshberger said:
Today at our local launch near Pasco, WA we observed an overflight of an all white 747 (4 engines, with upturned wingtips) that had a red rectangle (with white center) painted on the bottom in an area about as long as the wing root. At first we thought it might have been the 747 Supertanker aerial fire fighting tanker, but all pictures of that plane show a large amount of red color on the nose and underside (a fancy paint job). A minute or so later another aircraft possibly a 767/777/787 (two engines) also painted all white only without the red on the underside flew over along the same path as the previous one.

The question does anyone recognize these aircraft? We were unable to read the tail numbers, I am thinking they may have been from the Boeing facilities on the west side (Seattle area).
Click to expand...

Rich ...one question : See any Chemtrails?:smile:

This might be a clue....there's a red rectangle with rounded corners underneath................from a distance the white lettering in the center in the red logo might look like it has a white center...
Click to enlarge...
Boeing.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emira...le:Boeing_777-31H-ER_Emirates_A6-EGK_-_01.jpg
 
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All the white planes that fly out of our local base are CIA. Seriously
 
Boeing is celebrating their 100 birthday this weekend so all the aircraft were probably a part of an airshow? (I do not know for sure.) I am used to seeing Boeing test flights along the coast here and I usually check them out with the binoculars and I can not recall seeing any of them painted that way...Hmm, as cobra1336 said, Air America?
 
MaxQ said:
Rich ...one question : See any Chemtrails?:smile:

This might be a clue....there's a red rectangle with rounded corners underneath................from a distance the white lettering in the center in the red logo might look like it has a white center...
Click to enlarge...
View attachment 297143
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emira...le:Boeing_777-31H-ER_Emirates_A6-EGK_-_01.jpg
Click to expand...

No to the chem trails. And the aircraft had no other color on it than the red hollow rectangle, the rest of the aircraft ( both of them) were pure white with no graphics. With the binocs I was using and the distances involved it would have been easy to spot any branding on the aircraft.
 
rharshberger said:
Today at our local launch near Pasco, WA we observed an overflight of an all white 747 (4 engines, with upturned wingtips) that had a red rectangle (with white center) painted on the bottom in an area about as long as the wing root. At first we thought it might have been the 747 Supertanker aerial fire fighting tanker, but all pictures of that plane show a large amount of red color on the nose and underside (a fancy paint job). A minute or so later another aircraft possibly a 767/777/787 (two engines) also painted all white only without the red on the underside flew over along the same path as the previous one.

The question does anyone recognize these aircraft? We were unable to read the tail numbers, I am thinking they may have been from the Boeing facilities on the west side (Seattle area).
Click to expand...

Genuinely upturned wingtips on a 747 is not a standard issue aircraft.

I do know the original taller wingtips were first tested on a 747 even through they were never fully deployed there. Reminds me of some 727s out there with a mix of parts, like N289MT.
 
mikec said:
747-400s have winglets.
Click to expand...

I did read that winglets could be retrofitted but were not standard across all 747 models. At this point I doubt I will be able to get an identification of the aircraft in question.

It looked similar to the aircraft pictured below, only with winglets.
20110610 IWA_0012 747-8F N6009F left front take-off m.jpg
 
mikec said:
747-400s have winglets.
Click to expand...

They have the stubs, sure, but the way I read his description I was envisioning these -
api2a.jpg


Of course I was not there so I have no idea.
 
eggplant said:
I looked on flightradar24 and neither of the Emirates Cargo 747 were anywhere near North America yesterday. Weird.
Click to expand...


Eggplant, thanks for informing me of FlightRadar24, I was able to replay the entire days flights over my area during the time of our launch. For those thinking it was a UAE aircraft in the lead you seem to be correct, during the entire 10 hour section I played back only two aircraft matched the flight pattern of the two we saw yesterday. The lead one with the red rectangle was a UAE A380-861, and the second aircraft was a Etihad Airways Boeing 777-237. I did way underestimate my altitudes though the A380 was at 40k and the 777 at 37k, but they were only a few minutes apart. The sky was extremely clear and it was easy to spot the aircraft, the altitude combined with glare off the aircraft must have made them appear pure white, since both airways have brightly colored tails, and the windows would probably not even be visible at 10x magnification. Good calls for all you guys, on the first aircraft.
 
My aviation facebook group just posted a pic of an all-white 747-8 that was built for Transaero and is now owned by Boeing. It was in Seattle for Boeing's centennial celebration.
 
Last night I discovered that evidently Pasco (PSC) is on the great circle route between Abu Dhabi, and at at least one other location un the middle east.
 
Flyfalcons said:
Here's the pic they showed of it.
Click to expand...

That was in the webcast. It is bare/white. No tail number. No winglets as there are no winglets on the 747-8. If that is the Boeing owned 747-8, then it is a 747-8I (Passenger or "Intercontinental"). It's available.

Freighters have plugged windows.

Lots of photos on the web and on www.boeing.com
 
No tail number, except the one painted right in front of the rear exit door.
 

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