Tag Archives: aircraft

Preserved Blackbirds

If you ever want to find a way to lose a lot of time (this assumes you are an aviation guy), spend time on the Lockheed Martin in-house magazine’s website, Code One. Edited by Eric Hehs (with contributions including some by Jeff Rhodes), the magazine is full of great stories about Lockheed Martin products past and present. I should say I have met Eric and Jeff through ISAP and both are great guys so I am biased. When I am supposed to be doing something, Code One is the worst thing for me to look at since I can get lost in story after story. Recently they were celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the SR-71 and ran a piece about preserved Blackbirds. This got me wondering how many of them I have seen and photographed.

I will start by pointing out I saw them in service as well as preserved. Mildenhall was home of Detachment 4 of the 9^th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing for many years. Blackbirds made an appearance at the Air Fetes that were held at Mildenhall in those days. I also saw a couple from outside the fence during normal operations.

It turns out that, while there are a lot of them around, I have seen quite a few. Some I have seen but not photographed which is a little frustrating. However, most of the ones I have seen have made it in to the collection. Here are a selection of shots. (These also include A12 and YF-12 airframes so not all SR-71s but I doubt you care about that.)

Apache at Dayton

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One display at Dayton that I liked was the US Army Apache display. I have seen a few displays by Apaches over the years but they are not a regular feature of shows. The Apache is an impressive looking machine and given its nature, it can be kept close in front of the crowd to make a display that never loses your interest. Service pilots don’t tend to put the machine through as aggressive a flight demo as a company pilot might when trying to sell it. However, they do still show it off well.

The subdued finish on the Apache makes for a harder time getting shots on overcast days. However, it does take away the problem of harsh shadows on an already dark airframe. The subtlety of the different greens on the airframe are hard to show in some cases but here they do actually become apparent.

Smoke Squadron

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I previously talked about the visit to the Vectren show at Dayton a few years ago. One of the more unusual acts to make it is a team that apparently has a track record of appearing at Dayton and that is the Brazilian team, Esquadrilha da Fumaça or Smoke Squadron. They are equipped with Embraer Tucano turboprop trainers and the performance characteristics of the Tucano make for a tight display in front of the crowd combined with good maneuverability for the formations and the individual aircraft.

The weather was not great with low cloud and flat lighting but the lower speed of the Tucano meant that a good display could be presented, even if vertical maneuvering was restricted. The formations were tight and some good configurations could be set up with the planes maneuvering around each other during passes. I was disappointed to see how few shots I had of some passes. Now I would have a lot more to choose from but I guess I spent less time shooting in those days.

I suspect a lot of people have not seen this team so I am posting a lot of different shots in here. I would certainly like to see them perform again at some point in the future. I shall have to see where they next appear in the US.

BAe 146 Demonstration at LCY

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In my youth I had one of the coolest jobs I have ever had. I spent a summer working for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in London as part of their noise measuring unit. I spent a lot of time traveling to various different airfields to make noise measurements of the air traffic. I often took a camera along with me on these jaunts.

One trip was some weekend working – overtime! At that time, London City Airport was relatively new and was a turboprop only airport being served by Dash 7s, principally of Brymon Airways. Very different from its current role, it was still a relatively new airport with a shorter runway. There was a lot of interest in adding jet service to the airport with the BAe146 seen as the type that could meet the requirements of the glideslope as well as concerns about noise. This is where we come in!

A demonstration was set up one weekend with a couple of 146s operating from the airport. We were there to take some noise readings to compare them to the turboprops. (As an aside, I felt the noise from the Dash 7s was far more intrusive, even if the readings were actually lower than for the jets.) We went along with our noise measuring gear and took a bunch of readings. There was a period during the day when the flying wasn’t taking place and we were allowed to go to the airport to get fed. Since we had CAA passes, we also got to head on to the ramp.

These shots are what I got that day. Nothing too impressive as tends to be the case for my old stuff. The original scans showed up a lot of damage to the negatives which required much time in Photoshop to take out the worst of it. Still not the cleanest of images but a day that won’t be repeated which is enough to justify a post and a chance to share an old experience.

Vectren Airshow

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I was looking at some museum images for a piece and realized that one of my visits to the National Museum of the USAF was tied to a visit to the Vectren Airshow at Dayton. I had forgotten about this show a few years ago. It had not had the best of weather but it did include an interesting mix of participants with strong military participation.

I decided to go back through the shots and take a look at what was there. I also could run through the shots to see whether updating the raw conversion and taking a crack at my latest approach to processing would make something more interesting of some of them. Neither of the bodies I was shooting with that day are currently part of what I use so I didn’t know whether the same processing techniques would work for them. There were some differences in their response characteristics but they seemed to work reasonably well.

The different types on show included a B-2, a B-52 and a C-5 in the flying display. These are not regulars at most shows so provide a nice change. Sadly, a cloudy sky is not ideal for aircraft that are the color that those are. However, you go with what you have. Some of the more regular performers were also there and the Thunderbirds were the show finale. One overseas display team was there but they are worthy of a post of their own so keep an eye out for that.

JSOH Andrews 1994

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Another trip through the archives. While still living in DC in 1994, I took Nancy to an airshow at Andrews AFB for the Joint Services Open House. I found myself looking for something in my old negatives and the show had a few interesting things. 20 years means a lot of old aircraft have disappeared from service. Seeing them still active is a nice bit of nostalgia.

The shots aren’t great – few of my shots from those days are – and the negatives don’t always scan that well. All in all, not too much to boast about. However, I think they are interesting to see and maybe you will too.

Hangar Three

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While I was at Moffett Federal Field to cover the Soaring Angel exercise, we were shown around Hangar Three. It is used by the base units to store material as well as to stage equipment ahead of shipping. However, it is more interesting because it is one of the huge airship hangars on the airfield. I have previously posted some shots of Hangar One here. Hangar Three is on the other side of the field and one of two hangars of a different design to Hangar One. However, it is still a cool structure.

The structure is very dense. Being a wooden frame, it is very complex series of beams and joists to hold up such a large structure. It is both cool to see and hard to photograph when trying to convey the size of the thing. Added to that is that it is very dark in there. Compared to the brightness outside, there is a huge range of light from the ramp to the interior.

One other nice thing about the hangar is that it is currently the home to the P-2 Neptune for the museum across the airfield. It will move across to join the collection on display before too long. The QSRA research aircraft has already moved over and hopefully it will too. In the meantime, it is waiting in the dark. I don’t know whether any work is underway on it but it looks in pretty good shape. It will make a nice addition to the P-3 to show the history of maritime patrol aircraft at Moffett.

Tiger Moth Flying

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With so many things going on, I realized it had been a while since I made a trip up to Sonoma Skypark for the normal Saturday activities. I arrived and spent time with my friend Eric discussing many things aeronautical. While we talked, a Tiger Moth flew back into the pattern. We stopped to watch it for a moment and Eric assumed I had flown in one before – he couldn’t believe an aviation enthusiast from the UK could possibly not have done so. However, I hadn’t.

As it was, Eric got in discussion regarding an issue with the engine with Mike, the owner of the aircraft. Eric thought a short flight would be necessary to help diagnose the issue and thought I should provide ballast. I was not going to turn down this opportunity.

The flight was a short one as was required to check out the engine. We took off, climbed to a moderate height, flew a couple of turns and then returned to Skypark. It was a remarkably smooth aircraft and seemed to just glide through the air. Eric pointed out the guy with the stick might have something to do with that (for those of you who are photographers the assumption you must have a great camera will spring to mind) and, while I was certainly appreciative of Eric’s flying, I did like how the Tiger Moth flew.

Not sure when I will next get a chance to fly in the type but it was certainly great to experience and my thanks to Mike for letting me ride in his plane and to Eric for taking me up.

Deutsches Museum

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A friend of mine was discussing his imminent travel plans. Part of this is taking in Munich, a city we visited a few years ago when another friend was living there. The Deutsches Museum is on the itinerary for my friend’s current trip and it brought to mind the aircraft collection there. The museum is a marvelous place covering a wide variety of industrial, technological and scientific subjects. A day is required if you visit but you will still leave much unseen. The location of Messerschmitt and succeeding companies nearby means they have access to many great aircraft and the collection is outstanding.

On a previous visit in the early 90s, they had some other aircraft, some of which were outside. Some of these have now moved to another location where a second museum facility has been established. I was unable to fit in a visit there but if I ever get back to Munich, it will be on my list.

RAFM Hendon

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A recent project a colleague was working on involved some shots from the RAF Museum at Hendon. I had made a visit to this museum when I was a student living in London and had taken some photos at that time. I took a look through the old films to see whether I had anything that they needed. As it turned out, I didn’t have a shot of what they were after. As is so common when going through film archives, I find that I took a ridiculously small number of shots of interesting things and I am disappointed by the lack of shots and the quality of some of them too.

However, it was kind of interesting to see what was there at the time. Having never been back since, I have no idea how it is currently laid out and what is there that wasn’t before and what has gone. However, I do know that the Blackburn Beverley that was outside when I was there was scrapped not too long after that as the airframe had deteriorated in the outdoor storage. These shots are just a couple from that visit.