Tag Archives: USAF

B-1Bs on a Mission

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AU0E6358.jpgThe B-1B Lancer is a cracking aircraft.  The combination of size and power makes it look epic when it is in action.  A B-1 departure is not something that you will forget in a hurry.  Four large afterburning turbofans will get your attention and it has a very elegant shape to boot.  The variable sweep wings add a little interest too.  At minimum sweep for takeoff and landing, they look a little ungainly given how long the span is.  Put them all the way back and pour on the coals and the jet can really get moving.  Sadly, airshow appearances are few and far between these days so the chance to see vapor clouds forming around the jet are limited.  (I recently went through some old negatives from a UK airshow at which a B-1 made a fast pass in damp conditions.  The shots aren’t great but the effect is cool.)

C59F6056.jpgA couple of B-1s would launch each day as part of the Red Flag 16-1 exercises.    I was lucky enough to have a couple of good opportunities to see then.  When we were out between the runways, the B-1s launched off the right side.  Not ideal for lighting but you aren’t going to complain.  Because they are a large jet, you have to make some choices with lenses as to what you are aiming to get.  A quick swap of bodies can really help.  A long lens is not much use when they are level with you but the cool shot from behind as they climb out benefits from the big glass.

AU0E7668.jpgOn my first day there, the jets returned at the end of the mission as a pair.  Sadly, the clouds had moved in and the conditions were not great for getting a shot.  However, you aren’t going to ignore them.  On the second day when I was at the EOR, we got a good view of the two jets taxiing out and taking off.  The heat haze is a bit of a problem but not so much as to make it something you can avoid shooting.  Operating as a pair, they look more menacing.

C59F6757.jpgOften the B-1s are at the end of the recovery phase.  However, on this day, they came back relatively early.  I was still at the EOR when they broke into the pattern.  They did land on the opposite runway from the one we were at but they are big enough for this to not be a big deal.  A nice bit of mountain in the background certainly helps enhance the shot a little.  What a great looking jet.  I don’t know anyone who isn’t excited when they see one in action.

Air Force One and More Bad Weather

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AU0E3953.jpgThe Boeing VC-25, known as Air Force One when the president is on-board, made another visit to San Francisco a short while ago.  I had previously gone out to try and get this aircraft when it was in town.  One visit got there shortly after it had left.  Another got there in time but the weather was a lot less than ideal.  I wrote about the missed opportunity here and the slightly more successful time here.

C59F9318.jpgThe weather forecast for the time of departure was not good.  Arrival had been around the time I was flying home a few days before so I had been more interested then in whether our flight was going to be delayed.  With the weather looking poor, I was not making a plan to go.  Instead I was visiting some people in Hayward to discuss another aviation project.  As it happened, we wrapped up at about the right time for me to make the dash across the bay to SFO so I figured I would go.  The rain had been bad but it did appear that things might be clearing up.

AU0E3976.jpgI got to the airport and could see that the VC-25 was still parked up.  Aircraft were still arriving and departing so I knew I had some time.  I just hoped it hadn’t all been delayed without me knowing.  I hadn’t been there long when I got a visit from law enforcement.  The big lens obviously got some attention.  We had a chat and my details were verified but everything was ultimately cool.  The cop was very friendly.  As we finished up, I noticed that things had got very quiet.  Nothing was arriving or departing – a good sign!  The only thing airborne was a Coast Guard MH-65 in their new paint colors.

AU0E4033.jpgMeanwhile, the sun was making periodic peeps through the clouds.  Was I actually going to get reasonable conditions?  I could see the APU was running on the jet and a little while later, the beacon started flashing and the stairs were pulled away.  Given that they don’t hang around, I figured we should see something soon.  Sure enough, they taxied out from the parking area and headed for runway 28R via the taxiway on the opposite side of the peninsula on which the runways are built.  A little worse for me with heat haze (yes, even on a crappy day the heat haze was still a problem).

AU0E3996.jpgI was aligned with the end of the runway so the jet taxied up and turned straight towards me before lining up and pushing the throttles up.  The secret service vehicles that had followed it down the taxiway turned and raced alongside for a short while until the speed was too much for them.  Unlike last time, they must have been a lot heavier because they used a lot of the runway before rotating.  Then they climbed away.  A successful shoot and time to head home!

A Very Pleasant VC-32 Surprise

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C59F3521.jpgYou go to Red Flag with the goal of seeing a lot of different combat aircraft. However, Nellis is a regular base and has other traffic. You don’t always see something during the course of a mission launch but sometimes it happens. While we were checking in at the gate, a VC-32 came down the approach. This is the USAF’s version of the Boeing 757 and it is a pretty nice looking plane. Unfortunately, when we are the gate, the security team is not too keen on us taking shots so we watched it land and figured we had missed our chance.

C59F3523.jpgTurns out we were wrong. While we were out between the runways, the VC-32 taxied out and got ready to depart. Even better, it departed to the southwest which meant it came past us with good light on it. It turns out that Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter had been visiting and the plane was taking him onwards. I was very happy to get something I haven’t seen up close for a number of years.

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Two Aborts in One Launch

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C59F6599.jpgRed Flag missions are two periods of intense activity with an intermediate phase of nothing much. The launch develops in to a steady stream of jets taking off as everyone gets airborne for their phase of the mission. They have been preceded by the tankers and AWACS who are setting up to manage the throughout of the smaller jets. Once everyone is gone, the simulated war is occurring somewhere else. Then, everything starts to come back with a steady stream of the jets breaking overhead and landing before the tankers and AWACS come back at the end.

C59F6489.jpgAfter the majority of the launch, we were at the EOR watching the occasional straggler go out or some based planes fitting in. Then we got a pair of F-15s come back. They flew an approach with one jet on the glide path while the other was clearly shepherding them in. The F-15 landed without incident and the wingman powered away to rejoin the flight. Some fire trucks rolled but everything seemed to be under control.

C59F6499.jpgNot long after we had stopped discussing this, a pair of aggressor F-16s came into view. The same procedure and one landed while the other shadowed them down the approach. With a safe touchdown, power on and back to the battle. Technical issues are not uncommon but I was surprised to get two in close succession. Everyone seems to have handled them appropriately and they appear to have ended without further incident.

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Another Night Launch on a Cold and Windy Night

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C59F5307.jpgThe evening launch at Red Flag is something I have had a go at on a number of occasions. Consequently, regular readers that pay close attention may feel that this post is a bit repetitive and they would be correct. I was a bit better prepared for the night launch than on previous occasions. I had brought a cable release and a Gorillapod to allow me to have a bit better a set up for the time lapse video of the launch. Meanwhile, I was shooting handheld with the second body.

C59F5147.jpgSadly, a couple of things were not working in my favor. First, it was pretty windy and, while I had the camera set up on the hood of the car, it was a bit vulnerable to movement as the car moved in the wind and the camera vibrated on the pod. Consequently, some of the video is less than ideal. However, conditions did seem to settle down a bit and the later part of the video seems to steady up a bit.

C59F5534.jpgSecond was that there was no moon. It was very dark and cold out there. I managed to get some shots of the B-1B launches but the only illumination was from the burners. No ambient light at all so they didn’t look as good as on previous attempts. I did try to stay for the whole launch and not to get the time lapse showing things in full swing when it ends but there is a limit to how long you want to hang out in the cold when everyone else has gone. I got most of the launch but I did see a bunch of jets head out as I passed the speedway. I probably should have tried getting some shots from there as they were still in burner at that point.

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A Feel for the EOR

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During the recent Red Flag 16-1, which I was covering for Global Aviation Resource, I got to spend a portion of the day at the South EOR.  EOR means end of the runway and this is where the planes come prior to taking off.  They go through their final checks before launching and we get to be very close to them.  I was mainly taking stills for the GAR feature but I got some video while I was there.  I wanted to have something that shows what it feels like and how close we were.  Consequently, some of the shots involve my fellow photographers so you can have some context of where we were.

Raptor Vortices

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C59F1455.jpgA bit more from the Raptor display today. As the jet flew away from the crowd, it pulled in to the vertical. From a view directly astern, we got a brief view of the vortices forming over the forebody. The jet was quite a way off so these shots are cropped quite a bit. I love the way the vortex sits away from the body. Chino was a pretty dry environment so not a lot of vapor to pull from the air but it still showed up nicely.

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Interesting Raptor Control Inputs

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C59F1416.jpgIt might be a long time ago that I did anything closely related to the engineering of fighters but there is still a part of me that is a stability and control type of guy. Watching the control inputs and responses of planes is cool as far as I am concerned. With the advent of fly by wire designs, there was considerable scope to play around with the use of the control surfaces to achieve different aims. With no direct linkages to the stick, the pilot can be totally unaware of the choices the system is making for control combinations.

C59F1422.jpgThe engineers may have chosen to program the trailing edges to have different deflections inboard and outboard to offload the outer portion of the wing for example. The F-22 makes use of a variety of interesting control inputs. For example, it doesn’t have a traditional speed brake. I assume this was removed for stealth reasons. Instead, the control surfaces move counter to each other. You may have inboard flaps going down and outboard flaps going up. The moments cancel out but all increase drag incrementally so the effect is like having a speed brake deployed.

Since the aircraft is also unstable, you may have tail deflections that seem at odds with the maneuver being flown. During the Chino show, the usual routine was flown (usual for an F-22 but not many other jets) and, as I look through a bunch of the shots, I see some quite unusual control inputs. If you are in to such things, these may appeal to you. Gary, are you reading this?

Some Gratuitous Raptor Shots

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C59F8213.jpgUnfortunately, I have a rather large backlog of images that I haven’t done much with.  This is sometimes the result of having a number of events in a short space of time and other times it is the result of laziness!  Last year I covered the Planes of Fame show at Chino for GAR.  I got a lot of shots while I was there and I needed a selection to illustrate the piece so I dived in, found some good examples, worked on those and put them into the feature.

AU0E9493.jpgUnfortunately, I never got around to undertaking a proper run through of the shoot.  I only realized this recently so I have started to go through the images when the time allows.  One part of the show I really liked was the twilight show on the Friday.  This included a display by the USAF F-22.  In the last light of the day, the airframe looked really great.

AU0E9464.jpgRunning through the shots I found a few of the jet that I really liked.  (I found more than will work for this post and some that I like for various reasons but won’t really gel with most people.)  As a result, here are a sample of the shots I have been finding.  Now I am starting to think about air shows this year for the first time.  I might have to go to this one again!

Raptors at Play

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wpid13828-C59F9146.jpgIs the Raptor a good looking jet or not? I still have yet to make up my mind on that one. From some angles it looks pretty cool and from others it looks awkward. Never look at it on the ground because the undercarriage is really not designed to make it look elegant! Either way, it is a striking jet. I have seen them a bunch of times at different venues and, while picking out some shots for a project, I also saw a bunch of F-22s and figured I might have a selection of some of them, hopefully looking at their best.