Category Archives: aircraft

Shocking Shells

My trip to Arizona to shoot the shooting A-10s was a lot of fun and something I have already covered. One aspect of this shoot that caught my interest was the cannon shells in flight. I have seen images from other people that allow you to see the A-10’s shells leaving the muzzle or flying to the target and when I got something similar, I was quite pleased. However, a shot that really caught my eye was one of them that had a background with some clouds visible.

This background provides a mechanism to see any discontinuities in the density of the air as is experienced in a shockwave. This is the effect that is used in Schlieren photography in wind tunnels. The refractive index of the air changes as the density changes. Normally you don’t see this. However, if the background is not continuous, the refraction of the background results in the shockwave being visible. One of the shells showed this up and I thought it was cool. Therefore, I am sharing it here just in case you think it is cool too!

Goodbye USAirways 737-400

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There are some airlines in the US that I have spent a lot of time with and there are others that have only been an occasional feature of my travel. USAirways is one that I did not use a great deal since I didn’t live in one of their core markets. However, I did sometimes find myself on one of their planes and I have certainly seen plenty of them around.

Their fleet has included a lot of the A320 family but for a long time the 737 was a big part of operations with the 737-400 a regular sight. Now, their time has come and the last flight has taken place. This prompted me to dig through the collection to see what I had of them. It seems that most of my shots come from the Washington DC area but it was nice to have older and newer schemes on the jets.

Here are a few of the jets that have now either gone to another home or have ended up as spares for the rapidly diminishing fleet of what became known as 737 Classics (although the 100 and 200 series jets might cause an eyebrow to be raised at that description).

Curtiss Jenny

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There are many vintage aircraft that I have had the chance to photograph over the years. However, I have not had many opportunities to photograph a genuine First World War era aircraft. That was something that I was recently able to address. Sonoma Valley in Schellville has a variety of interesting aircraft as I have mentioned in the past. One of these is Frank’s beautiful Jenny. It is in pristine condition. I had previously been around when it was due to fly but a fuel leak in a line had curtailed activities that day.

This time the plan was to fly a couple of people in the aircraft. Eric Presten was the pilot for these flights and he needed to run a quick air test before taking anyone up so three flights appeared to be on the cards. I arrived at Schellville in the morning to be ready. Unfortunately, the weather was not looking too cooperative. There was a little mist and the cloud base was pretty low with the surrounding hills having their tops obscured. We got the aircraft ready as we waited for the cloud to lift which it progressively did.

Eric was soon able to get up for the air test. While the conditions were better for flying, they still weren’t great for photography. However, while he was up, the cloud was burning off more and more. The result was, by the time the two flights for the guest took place, conditions were ideal. For the second ride, Eric put in an overflight of the field allowing me to get something other than ground running shots, tail end departures or head on landings. The latter two were subject to a lot of heat haze so it was great to get something a little closer in.

She truly is a lovely looking aircraft and an example of something very rare to see. I will enjoy seeing her flying again. What will be even better is getting a chance to shoot her air to air. If the opportunity for that should come up, I will be a very happy boy. In the mean time, I am very grateful to Frank and Eric for including me in this. Great guys and a great plane!

Rustling the Ruslan

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A long time holder of the title of world’s largest aircraft (until superseded by the single example of its big brother) was the Antonov AN124 Ruslan. This giant freighter was created in the days of the Soviet Union by the Antonov design bureau in what is now Ukraine. With the thawing of east-west relations, the utility of this aircraft was apparent to many western organizations both civil and military. These days, the operators of the type have a steady business moving outsized freight around the world. There has even been talk of restarting production although that remains just talk for now.

My first experience of the big Antonov came in 1988. It made an appearance at the Farnborough airshow along with a pair of MiG-29s. This was a big deal at the time and I remember being amazed as I stood next to these types that had been something previously unlikely to be seen unless something very bad had happened. The MiGs flew impressive displays and wowed all who were there. The Antonov was not so lucky. On the first day of flying as I stood with everyone waiting for it to take off, it started to roll down the runway before a bang and flash indicated a surge in one of the engines and she stayed firmly on the ground.

That was as close as I got to one for a long time afterwards. I occasionally might see one parked in a quiet corner of an airport and once or twice spotted one flying far off in the distance but I never saw one up close and flying until a short while ago. I have a Flightaware tracker on the movements of these beasts and one of them was due into Moffett Field on a Saturday. I decided this was something I had to do so made the trip across the bay. Everything ran according to schedule and I was there to get a shot as she came in across the fence (a fence that spoiled a nice finishing shot which I include just because it was almost nice.) Not bad after 26 years of waiting!

Spruce Goose Then and Now

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There is a fine line between being inspired by someone’s work and plagiarizing them. Today I shall tiptoe along that line. My friend Hayman Tam has recently posted some pictures of the Spruce Goose on his blog after a trip he had made to the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville OR. Go to Hayman’s blog at shutterspeedaero.wordpress.com to see that post and many others. In doing so, he reminded me of my own trip to the museum and photographing the Goose. However, that was not the first time I had seen it.

In 1990, during my first ever visit to the United States, I was in Long Beach with my Dad. We visited the Queen Mary and in those days, the Spruce Goose was inside the large dome that sits on the waterfront. I had my camera with me on that trip. It was my first Canon camera, an EOS600 (which was called the EOS630 in the US) and that camera got a lot of use over the years. I still have it. I didn’t take a huge number of pictures of the Spruce Goose but I did get a few.

Moffett Field Museum

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Paul’s visit also included a trip to Moffett Field. Neither of us had visited the museum there so we were both interested in having a look. To be honest, we had assumed it would be a relatively quick visit but the place was very interesting and a docent ended up chatting to us about lots of features in the museum and he was a great guy to talk to. He also took us outside to look at some of their more interesting aircraft.

There are a few preserved aircraft at Moffett. Some restoration work continues and their P-2 Neptune is currently across the field being worked on. A P-3 is a short walk away from the museum but they have a fenced off area with a few other exhibits. These include an F-104G Starfighter that NASA used to operate, an AH-1 Cobra from the US Army, a research wind tunnel model (Moffett has an interesting selection of wind tunnels even after the demolition of the biggest one a few years ago) and their centerpiece, a Lockheed U-2. It is currently awaiting reassembly so the wings are on supports alongside the aircraft awaiting reattachment. They have worked hard on restoring it and it looks really cool. The camera installation is inside the museum as well.

Moffett Field’s history as an airfield is an interesting one and they cover it well. Whether it is the early airship work and the huge hangars that are still on the field or the long presence the US Navy had, the current ANG rescue operations or the NASA research activity, they have it covered. Do pay them a visit and support the work that they are doing. They have a few cool aircraft that are on the other side of the field which are currently out of bounds to the public so I shall have to see if there is a way to get to see them at some point.

T-6s Doing Their Stuff

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A pair of locally based North American T-6 trainers were keeping busy while the Collings folks were in town. Shortly after I first arrived, they launched as a pair. The departure was very nice but was a little spoiled by a card error on my camera. (I had a card that had given me occasional trouble but this was the first time it really crapped out. It has now gone back to the manufacturer for a replacement.) The T-6s were not done and flew several times. This gave me a few more opportunities to get shots of them. Their returns to base would involve some nice breaks into the downwind which were well centered on our location. I will have to investigate these guys further since they flew very nicely.

Civil Planes at Livermore

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My visit to Livermore for the Collings Foundation visit also provided some other interesting aircraft to shoot. The field was quite busy on a sunny weekend day. The usual piston singles were out and about while a couple of aerobatic types were also getting some hours in. No great description here. Just a few shots to show you what I mean.

Hawgsmoke 2014

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Every other year, the A-10 community in the US Air Force holds a competition called Hawgsmoke. This year it was being held in Arizona. The aircraft were based at Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson and the Goldwater range complex was where most of the exercise was taking place. With the possibility that the A-10 might be taken out of service hanging over things, I was keen to get down there in case this was the last time the event would take place.

I covered the event for Global Aviation Resource so you can see the article I produced here. Rather than repeat that, I shall provide a little of the back-story. Arizona in July is not the coolest place in the world. Head out into the desert and it is even warmer. Get taken there in an Air Force bus which has air conditioning that doesn’t work properly and you will be pretty toasty. If the young guy driving the bus appears to be falling asleep all of the time, you are feeling a bit more alert than might otherwise be the case in that heat.

Our time on the range was a bit short. One of the TV crews from a local station obviously decided he had seen enough and told the organizers that he would miss his deadline if we didn’t leave. He had been given the same schedule as the rest of us so I suspect he was talking crap. However, while we were on the range for less time than expected, we still got a great experience of the A-10s running in to shoot the targets. The close proximity as they fired was something else as was their break over the top of us after each pass.

It was a good bunch of guys on the trip and we all headed out to shoot around Davis Monthan when we got back. This gave me a chance to get some more shots of the A-10s that would fill out the article a little. By the end of the day, I was shattered. I had been drinking liquid all day but I think I was just keeping out of trouble rather than being properly hydrated. Still, it was really worth it. A little longer and the benefit of the sun coming around would have been nice but it was still cool (but hot!). Below is some video that I shot for GAR while I was there too.

Coast Guard Bell 47

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I always seem to find something aviation related when I am out and about. San Ramon is the next town up from us and it was having its Art and Wind event. This combined a bunch of art stalls with some excellent kite flying displays and was an amusing play on the more common Art and Wine festivals that many towns around here have. As we wandered around, we came across a Bell 47 helicopter. They are not terribly rare but this one was a bit more interesting as it was in service with the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

I had no idea that Bell 47s were still in government service. The crew were standing by and talking to a selection of kids that came to have a look. Our timing couldn’t have been better because just after we arrived, they starting moving people away so that they could take off. It would have been rude to leave at this point so we sat down close by and watched them start up and depart the field after a brief moment turned towards us to say goodbye. Nice!