Boeing 747-8 just lifted off!!

[clippedwing]

No source link or pics....sorry.

Just saw it myself. Big white and beautiful. Lifted off from Paine field runway 34L and departed the pattern to the north disappearing through low clouds.

Two chase planes off the right wing. I counted 4 news helicopters hovering for the event.

Neat-o!

[steve86]

Almost got it the second time.

[Mr. Lucky]

Don’t worry. The metric system is impossible to understand.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Cool!

[TChris]

The metric system is impossible to understand.

Huh.

I must be one of the lucky ones. It's not too tough, really.

[RckyRaCoCo]

http://www.airlinereporter.com/2010/02/video-and-pictures-of-boeing-747-8-first-flight/

[AxelPaulsenJr]

President Palin will look good in one of these birds!

[corkoman]

The chase plane looks like a F9F Panther!

[Mr. Lucky]

OK, well just how fast is 792 kilograms per hour?

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Must be the fuel consumption.

[Frantzie]

VP Palin would be on Air Force 2 while President Romney would be on Air Force 1.

[LifePath]

I am pretty sure the chase plane was an old F-80 or T-33.

[Frantzie]

(runs away)

[TChris]

OK, well just how fast is 792 kilograms per hour?

Well, once you figure out the difference between airspeed and fuel consumption rate, the metric system isn't too complicated. :-)

[edge10]

I bet she’ll do the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs as well.

[Mr. Lucky]

If it’s not described by “a pint’s a pound the world around”, it’s too complicated for me.

[KarlInOhio]

It's top speed is more than a million and a half furlongs per fortnight.

[Quix]

What’s so new about it vs older models?

[TChris]

If it’s not described by “a pint’s a pound the world around”, it’s too complicated for me.

LOL!

Well, that "standard" is mighty fuzzy, considering the question: A pint of... what?

A pint of feathers certainly doesn't weigh a pound.

If you can count to 10, you can understand the metric system. Everything's a multiple of 10, which makes more basic sense than the huge variety of numbers in play with the "English" (who now use metric) system.

12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard
5280 feet = 1 mile
1 gallon = 0.13368 cubic feet

vs.

10 millimeters = 1 centimeter
100 centimeters = 1 meter
1000 meters = 1 kilometer
1 liter = 1000 cubic centimeters
1 liter of water weighs 1 kilogram

I know which one makes more basic sense to me, but I guess I more or less grew up with it too.

[Ready4Freddy]

http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/archives/193750.asp?from=blog_last3

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Not in a thousand years!!!!