Virgin Galactic White Knight 2 Formation Near SFO

Where did anyone claim this was new news? It's an interesting video and he had a question about it.

from the winglets it looks like a virgin america a320

Check the Virgin website. I'm sure they hired the photographer in the chase plane.

Agree, Southeast Fallarone, check NOAA chart 18645.

First of all, TCAS doesn't even have anything to do with this. Secondly, if you've never flown a formation flight before, don't talk about the safety of a formation flight. WK2 was clearly at least 1 1/2 A320 wing spans away. Thirdly, if you have ever flown a formation flight, you wouldn't have even have commented about its safety.

Watching the landing video makes it clear it was a press/promotional flight. I'm pretty sure this woudln't be done with just a random scheduled flight. I'd be willing to bet that everyone got on that plane knowing it was going to happen, and probably signed a waiver for it.

This was obviously pre-planned. They didn't just intercept an airliner for the hell of it. It's perfectly legal. Whether it's a safety issue or not depends on the flying abilities of the pilots involved. I've done lots of air-to-air photography, mostly with military aircraft and pilots, some with civilians. I've also turned down a request to "come along and shoot some pics" because I didn't trust the close-formation flying competence of the pilots involved -- which took all my diplomatic skills because one of them was my father-in-law.