Tag Archives: Lockheed Martin

F-35A Departure And Arrival

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Over the course of the Seafair weekend, I got to see the demo F-35A arrive and depart a few times.  The demo pilot would get airborne and keep the jet on the deck in full burner building up a decent amount of speed.  Then, she would pull to a steep climb just as she got to the perimeter of the field.  This looked pretty impressive from the side but it was even more impressive from head on.

The return to land after the display was a lot more sedate.  It was a pretty standard pattern and approach but there were plenty of people at the south end to enjoy the last moments of the flight.  I headed down there a couple of times.  You could easily do both departure and approach since you had the whole time that the display was underway to re-position.  I did all go to Ruby Chow Park from one departure and shot video rather than stills.  Seeing the F-35 come right at us and then pull hard was impressive.  The noise was intense and the wake threw dust and debris into the air around us.  It made an impression!

Fat Albert Arrives First

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Seafair means a lot of aircraft coming to Boeing Field.  The Blue Angels are always the feature part of the show and this was going to be my first chance to see their new aircraft.  Yes, they have replaced the Hornets with Super Hornets and I shall cover that separately but they have also replaced Fat Albert since last I saw them.  The C-130T has been replaced with a C-130J that was sold to them by the Royal Air Force.  It has a new paint scheme to complement this change of era.

I was at Boeing Field for the arrival of the Blues and the jets were preceded by the arrival of Albert.  The good thing is that it is tractable on ADSB so I knew it was going to arrive and when.  Of course, a Herc coming down the approach is not as dramatic as a bunch of Super Bugs blasting over in formation but it is still good.  I did manage to catch it again in the coming days as part of the display so had more than one chance to get some shots.

F-16s In Odd Colors

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Sentry Eagle 2022 had a couple of F-16s on static display that had been painted up in special color schemes.  They were supposed to be throwback schemes but, according to those I know that know more about these sorts of things, there are some issues with the schemes that they chose.  I have no idea about such things but I have to say, neither scheme seemed to look that great to me.  They felt slightly cartoonish but I can’t come up with a better explanation what it was.

Getting shots of them both was not straightforward.  First, there were a ton of people around as they were central to the static displays for the show.  Also, the sun was very high and bright and they was a lot of contrast to deal with.  One of them was also close to a shadow from a hangar which made for even more contrast issues.  Since we weren’t staying on base for the full show, I only had a narrow window to work with.  It did improve just before we left, thankfully.

Gate Guards At Klamath Falls

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The 173FW at Klamath Falls has flown a variety of types over the year.  One of the advantages of the base being open for Sentry Eagle 2022 was the chance to check out the preserved examples that they have.  There is a central avenue on base that is the location of an F-4, an F-15 and an F-16.  They are mounted on poles and in the colors of the unit.  The lighting can be a bit tricky depending on the time of day but there are ways of making the most of what you can get.

Each plane is set up in a dynamic pose as is appropriate for a fighter aircraft.  They are well looked after and there aren’t too many items on them that you would want removed, like spikes to deter birds from landing.  I was surprised how few of the visitors to the event actually came to check them out as they weren’t far from the main route to the ramp but it certainly made it easier trying to get some shots.

Shooting Under The Arrivals

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When the arrivals at Nellis on on the 03 runways, it means a trip to Cheyenne.  This is not the greatest part of the world to visit but it is a feature of a Nellis trip.  The sun angles were still quite low while I was there so I decided to try shooting from further around the road than I have done previously.  For the planes coming in on the left runway, I had a reasonable sun angle on them.  For planes on the right, they were coming right over my head.

I quite liked shooting like this.  The planes have a surprising amount of variety in their line up angles when this far from the threshold so, while they are all coming close to you, it is not a repeat of the same shot every time.  Each pilot takes a slightly different line and some variation in elevation too.  You get something akin to head on shots and then it is a case of rapidly swiveling around to get a shot from behind.

There is a lot of fencing and trees along that part of the road so getting a clean shot of everything is hard to achieve.  However, it is still possible to get something a little different.  With the light angles being less than ideal, rather than worry about shots that aren’t going to be very usable due to either glare or shadow, why not get something a little different.  It does require some quick adjustments and it can get a touch noisy but it is still fun to try something a little different.

The Light Comes Back At The End Of The Day

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The weather at Nellis was definitely not playing ball for the majority of my time at Red Flag 22-2.  However, as the recoveries from the afternoon exercise were completing, some of the regular base traffic was getting ready to launch.  Nellis is a bit like Seattle (hear me out) in that, even when the weather is a bit crappy in the afternoon, there is a good chance the light improves later on.  This proved to be the case on my first full day there.

As the later jets were launching, the clouds had cleared up a bit and there was some nice low angle sun to be had on the aircraft as they headed out.  I had gone up past Gate 6 at the Speedway to be in place for any Flex departures and this proved to be a good spot.  Some of the jets turned a little beyond me but gave a better top side view while other turned a bit earlier and were almost heading overhead where I was.  The light was better than anything I had got earlier in the day so it worked for me.

Honolulu Military Traffic

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While sitting at the terminal at Honolulu waiting for our flight home many moons ago, I was staring out of the window at the traffic arriving and departing.  Being in a different area meant plenty of different airlines as well as the more familiar ones.  I created a post a while back that included some of the more usual operators.  However, the airport shares a runway with the Air Force base.  When you are on final approach, you get to see some of the fighters in shelters.  It also means that some military traffic might arrive.

A bunch of F-16s started appearing as they rolled out after landing.  I don’t know whether Hawaii was their destination or just a good stopover as part of a Pacific crossing.  They weren’t making the journey unsupervised though.  A KC-10 was dragging them across the ocean and it soon showed up too.  I guess the last refueling was the cue for the F-16s to put in a burst of speed to get in first with the “Gucci” following them home.

Shock Diamonds and the F-22

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Within the very high speed flows of air in an aircraft’s exhaust, you can set up a series of shock waves and expansion fans as a result of the differences between the pressure of the flow and that of the surrounding air.  When afterburner is engaged, the hot gases and the temperature changes these shocks and expansions cause, result in a diamond pattern forming in the exhaust plume.  In darker conditions, these diamonds are more conspicuous but they are visible even in normal daylight.

These diamond patterns are a function of the flow being symmetrical since most engines have round exhaust nozzles.  This isn’t the case for the F-22, though.  It has flattened nozzles with a pointed profile top and bottom.  This got me wondering what the effect is on the exhaust plume and whether the traditional diamonds are formed or whether the nozzle shape results in a different pattern of shock and expansions as they reflect within the plume.  I decided to dig in to some shots to see what I could find.

I don’t have a lot of F-22 afterburner shots.  While I have shot them a lot taking off, they often take off without afterburner.  Since they have plenty of power and burner use dramatically increases fuel consumption (and the F-22 is not over-endowed with range as it is), there is no point using burner if it isn’t needed.  Air shows are a time when they do give it plenty of burner, so that is the source of the shots.

The result of this is that there is definitely something unusual about the shock patterns.  I include some shots of F-16 and F/A-18 afterburner plumes and the normal shock patterns that create the hotspots known as the diamonds are very obvious and simple in shape.  For the F-22, things are very different with the patterns of hot zones being something more in line with the shape of the nozzle.  The way in which the patterns repeat is more complex than for an axisymmetric nozzle.  There is nothing much to conclude in these observations.  It is just something that appeals to an old aero guy like me.

Lockheed Martin Test Assets

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An early ISAP symposium included a visit to Lockheed Martin’s facility at Fort Worth.  We were there to see the first F-35 test aircraft, AA-1.  In addition, they had arranged to bring Glacier Girl, a P-38 Lightning, to be there too to provide two Lockheed Lightnings.  However, while I was up the scissor lift that was provided for us to get an elevated view, I looked the opposite direction.  There were two interesting looking airframes parked up.  One was an old F-16 that had probably been used for test duties.  The other was not a flyable plane but it was some sort of test rig for the STOVL configuration of the F-35 – what would become the F-35B.  A couple of cool looking items that you wouldn’t normally get to see.

Fort Worth F-16s

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Ahead of an ISAP symposium many years ago, my friend Richard had arranged a visit to JRB Carswell at Fort Worth.  As well as being the home of the Lockheed Martin assembly plant, it also hosts the 301st FW of the USAF Reserve with their F-16s.  They were great hosts and we got to spend a bunch of time around the base.  On their ramp space, we had a lot of freedom to shoot them prepping for missions and heading out.

We also got to go to the EOR and see them come in after their missions and have the jets safed prior to taxiing back to the ramp.  Being close to the jets while they are doing real work is such a different experience to seeing them at an air show when things are all a bit more contrived.  This was a new experience for me at the time and so I was following the example of a few of the other guys when looking to see what sort of things to get shots of.  It was a great learning experience and a bunch of fun too!