Originally Posted by
Mikity
Comet Hale-Bopp on my way back from Hawaii to LHR... I was an impoverished grad student and didn't have the means to get a nice seat on my many flights, but this put a huge smile on my face!
wow, that just reminded me ... 26 Feb 1979 the Pacific Northwest chapter of AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics) chartered an
Alaska Airlines 727-100 to fly along the
track of a total solar eclipse
as I recall, there were about 100 on board; everyone with a right-side window seat (~20) remained in their seat, and those in the adjacent middle seats who were ok with sharing the windows (~15) did also ... four or five took turns at the little window in the mid-galley door just forward of the wing; the remaining 50-60 cycled thru the cockpit four or five at a time for a minute or so
at the time I was working at Boeing Flight Test, and had a "Non-Routine Flight Crew Authorization" card (technically only usable on Boeing operated test flights, but the pilots and flight engineer let me kneel against the wall ahead of the FE panel and behind the first officer's seat anyway) ... I got about a dozen really good photos thru the first officer's window