I suggested in last week’s post on the dumb fly-over of New York Harbor that the desired photo, and lots like it, could be better made on a computer than with actual airplanes burning thousands of pounds of fossil fuel. And indeed, Will Sherman provides these nice examples of AF1 in various places including one it can’t actually go (h/t: a reader). No-one was frightened and only the teensiest bit of carbon dioxide was released in making these photos.
A reader wrote to say that operations like the NY outing are sometimes used to give pilots flight hours. Perhaps – but doing it over New York with no public warning sounds like someone is scheduling flying time a few pounds short of mental takeoff thrust.
