Tag Archives: jet

Won’t Forget the Blue Angels Crosses Too

I posted a bunch of crossing shots of the USAF Thunderbirds and, since I was doing that, I thought it might look like favouritism if I didn’t do the same for the Blue Angels. I saw a lot more of the Blue Angels in the second half of my time living in the US because Fleet Week in San Francisco and Seafair in Seattle always had them in attendance. That meant I got to see them after the transition to the Super Bug but the majority of shows I saw over the years were with the legacy Hornets. Anyway, here are a bunch of crossing shots for the Blues to balance things up.

Some Morning Heathrow Arrivals

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Another morning flight for a work trip meant another stop at the Pod Parking. Since the traffic had been light, I was there a little ahead of schedule so it would be rude not to get some shots of the arriving traffic on the northerly runway at Heathrow. Had I been there at sunrise, the sun would have actually been right around on my side, but I was a little later in the morning, so it had come around on the nose.

A Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 was nice to have but I got some short haul types from across Europe. The really interesting surprise was a Loganair ATR42. There are lots of poles in the pod parking and they make getting an unobscured shot tricky. I will confess that some AI removal tools in Lightroom have been exploited to remove some of the distractions. I have not taken out anything that was actually over part of the airframe, even though that can actually work quite well. These are just tidied up to allow the airframe be the focus.

Thunderbirds Crossing Shots

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As is often the case, I was looking for something when I came across something totally different and that took me down a rabbit hole. In this case, I found myself looking through some old shots of the USAF Thunderbirds. Particularly when living in the Midwest, I used to see them display pretty frequently. You get a bit blasé about it after a while. Anyway, I was skimming through shots to see whether I had any crossing shots that I liked. I was pleasantly surprised to find a few of them that came out pretty well. Modern cameras allow rapid frame rates which help with crossing shots but apparently, I could still get it right occasionally when the tech wasn’t quite so advanced. The weather and lighting might vary a bit but here are some of the ones I liked most.

Generations of Provost

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RAF Cosford provided a perfect venue to have a demo from an old RAF Jet Provost T5. As the home of part of the RAF Museum collection, they have the original Jet Provost which is currently stored at Cosford outside the museum building. Looking at this airframe on its stalky undercarriage, you can see that not a lot was changed when adding the jet engine from the original Percival Provost. I saw one of these flying at Old Warden last year.

The later versions of the JP had a more optimised approach. The airframe was tweaked and the undercarriage was shorted considerably. With the need for prop clearance, there was no need for long undercarriage and, I imagine, it was probably really inconvenient for boarding and servicing. The JP3, JP4 and JP5 have their differences but they can clearly be seen to be of the same basic design. Having two of the three on one day was an interesting comparison.

Up Close with Some F-35s

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This tanker trip included something I hadn’t had on previous flights – F-35s. Not a lot of them but we did get some jets show up later in the sortie. The surface finish on the F-35 is interesting, and it does pick up the light in good ways when the angles are right. The joy of being up at 16,000’ is that the chances of good light are high.

It is quite funny looking across at the pilot in the cockpit while they are plugged in. There I am staring at them while they are doing something reasonably intense. They have to decide whether to pretend we aren’t there and just look cool or are they going to give us a wave! Depends on your crew of course but I have had both.

A Pitts with Extra Oomph

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When I was a kid, the Pitts Special was the pinnacle of aerobatic aircraft. Then, the arrival of a bunch of high-powered monoplanes like the Zlin Z50L showed up follow by Extras, and the Pitts became more the preserve of individuals getting into aerobatics. It can still make a good display platform, though, and plenty of souped-up versions are on the air show circuit. The Cosford show included one flown by Rich Goodwin that has been modified with a pair of turbine engines mounted on each side of the fuselage.

This makes for a lot of noise and plenty of extra power. The piston engine still does the majority of the work but, when going vertical, the jets are fired up and give a major boost in performance. That can include hovering in place if required. From some angles, the plane is hard to notice as being any different to any other Pitts. However, from the right angles, the engines are conspicuous. A pretty cool display act. I assume top speed is constrained by the original airframe limitations so not much point in using the jets unless pointing upwards.

Please Come Just a Touch Forward

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Sometimes, pilots don’t realise that their obligations to a photographer are more important than their other mission goals!! I was in a Voyager on a refuelling track over the North Sea providing fuel to a bunch of RAF jets. A couple of Typhoons from 3 Sqn (ignore the unit markings on one of the jets) came up to get some fuel. They had a time on a range that they were waiting for so hung out in formation on our wing until near their slot so that they could top off at the last minute before heading in.

A tight formation of the two jets off our wing was really cool. They were close in and their formation was nice and tight. Perfect photo stuff. However, their location was just a touch further back then ideal with the wing tip obscuring the planes a touch. I was desperately hoping that they would pull forward just a touch. Nope, locked in place seemingly effortlessly maintaining station. Then, after a turn at the end of the track, the positioning moved just a touch forward. I was able to get a clear shot of the pair at last. What a great view. This was also one of those moments when it is important to stop looking through the viewfinder and enjoy watching this most unusual of sights.

Time to Tank Typhoons Again

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Tanker trips are always a great opportunity if they come up and I had another one a while back. Back to Brize and up in the Voyager. This was a slightly shorter trip than the last one as a result of a planned runway closure at Brize that needed us to be back on the ground. While it was shorter than my previous trip, we did have more trade.

The majority of what we got was Typhoon traffic. It is quite a challenge picking them out as they turn in towards the tanker for the join. Sometimes I spot them but often they are behind us before I know they are there. Isn’t that what a fighter pilot is supposed to always do? Once they appear on the port wing, you get a good look at them before they slip into pre-contact position. The forward fuselage is a good spot to be when they arrive and depart but, once they are on the hose, you can only see them from the last few rows of the aircraft and then it is very tight.

Fortunately, they stay on the basket for a while which means that people get a good chance to have a look and get some images. Picking a side for the light depending on which side of the racetrack we are using is handy, but you can also get a change of light if making the turn at either end. When the planes gather on the starboard side ready to depart, I changed my approach this time. I would kneel on the floor because, when they power up and climb away, they go up fast. You need to be low down to be able to track them heading off.

Up Close with the Gripen E Pair

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With RIAT having been cancelled for 2026, I find myself looking back at some shots from last year. This was the first time I got to see some Gripen E variants. All of my previous Gripen encounters have been earlier generations of the jet from the prototypes onwards. There was a pair of the jets taking off together at the end of the show. A tight crop on them as they climbed out gave a good look at these new airframes. I do like the Gripen. Nice to see it still finding customers.

Strike Eagle Shot I Couldn’t Ignore

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As is often the case, this shot is the result of me looking for something else. While searching through the catalogue to find something, I came across my first visit to the Aviation Nation show at Nellis AFB. I would end up spending a lot of time at Nellis over the years, but this was possibly my first real visit. The USAF F-15E Strike Eagle demo was on the programme, and I had the 500mm on as it took off. By purely good fortune, it rotated at almost the perfect spot for that focal length.

There is a tiny bit of clipping of the airframe, but the dynamism of the shot combined with the favourable lighting means I don’t mind. This then got me thinking of other F-15E demos that occurred around then. On two of them I got the mudhen in an arcing turn at speed with vapour across the airframe. One was in nice light but slightly backlit while the other was in more muted conditions. I figured I would include both of them here so you can compare them yourself.