Flying Over a Rainbow Is Said to Bring Luck-and This U.S. Route Maximizes Your Chances

"Every time I board a plane, I always think about how lucky I am to live in a time when I can see the other side of the world in just a few hours. But if you're hoping to double your luck and see one of nature's most charming displays while flying, the flight tracking network Wingbits has a few recommendations."

""According to a popular and enduring pilot's superstition, flying over a rainbow brings extreme good luck for the journey," the team explained in its findings, which were shared with Travel + Leisure. Inspired by this belief, the team partnered with Austin to combine its flight tracking data with her meteorological analysis to find the flights most likely to directly fly through the most rainbow-dense locations around the world."

Wingbits combined distributed flight-tracking data with meteorological analysis by atmospheric physicist Elizabeth Austin to identify commercial routes most likely to fly through rainbow-dense areas. The analysis used a pilot superstition that flying over a rainbow brings extreme good luck as motivation to map likely rainbow encounters. Wingbits' CEO highlighted that distributed tracking exposes patterns invisible to single observers and that combining community data with meteorological models produced the world's 'luckiest' flight paths. The top-ranked North American route runs from Dulles International (IAD) to Toronto Pearson (YYZ), flying over Niagara Falls where constant mist and sunlight frequently create visible rainbows.

Read at Travel + Leisure