Wild Horses - The Mustang

This particular P-51 Mustang has been in the Chino California Planes of Fame Museum's collection for several decades. I remember seeing it in the mid 1990's. They seem to take very good care of it as it still flys quite regularly. My close up view of the aircraft reveals her glossy and smooth appearance.

One of the truly wonderful things about being newly retired is that I now have the long dreamed of freedom to visit these museums during the work week and avoid them during the weekends. This means I am typically visiting during slow times and I don't run the risk of getting in the way of other visitors and vice versa. I just setup my tripod and quietly take my shots. As usual I draw the attention of the museum docents who are curious about what I do with the photos I take. Not many visitors seem to show up with tripods and professional cameras. When I show them examples of the aviation photos on my blog they show a little sign of recognition but don't say much other than "Looks like you "Photoshopped" that photo". The truth is while I once used Photoshop extensively, I rarely open the application these days. I ingest and catalog the photos using Adobe Lightroom and use Luminar Neo to merge my exposures into one HDR image that I then occasionally lightly post process them back in Lightroom.

Staggering into Annual Inspection

One of the unique things about the Yanks Air Museum is that several of their historic aircraft are still flying on a regular basis. This of course means that they must be regularly inspected and certified as safe to fly. During my recent tour I came across a few aircraft that were currently undergoing their annual inspections. This takes the form of a mandatory, comprehensive maintenance check performed every 12 months. It's designed to ensure the aircraft remains safe and deemed airworthy for continued operation. 

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This Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing was one such aircraft. Seeing it with its engine cowl removed and all of its cylinders on display was a rare opportunity to sort of pull the curtain back and get a peek behind the scenes so to speak. To my uneducated eye, all tools needed for the inspection were all spread out in front of it and since the inspector had wandered off, I took the opportunity to take a few images. 

The Passion and the Fury

During a recent visit to the Yanks Air Museum in Chino, California, I met the museum’s general manager. Unlike most visitors, I often raise some concern among facility managers due to my unusual equipment and attire. I arrive with a tripod-mounted camera, an external monitor, sunshade, and sometimes a rolling dolly. I wear a camera vest with two additional cameras and occasionally also use a camera dolly along with a rolling camera case with extra lenses and batteries. This makes me stand out quite a bit.

Museum managers often approach me to discuss my plans for using the photos I intend to take, as many museums want to control or be aware of photo or video sales on their property.

I explained my photography process and preference for HDR photography to the manager. I explained that I aim to capture highly detailed photos while controlling the depth of field. Taking nine images with a tripod allows me to achieve this. I showed her some overexposed shots on my monitor and she was able to discern significant detail in the FJ-1 Fury aircraft.

Though polite and welcoming, she made it clear that the museum wouldn’t want me to sell the photos I take there. I agreed. I showed her some aircraft photos I’ve previously taken, including those from the San Diego Air Museum, the USS Midway, and Gillespie Field. She showed interest in possibly using some of my photos to promote the museum. I emailed her a few images from the Yanks Museum, but I haven’t yet received a response. I suspect my email may have inadvertently gone to her junk folder.

I feel it’s my passion for photography that compels me to carry around so much camera gear. Today, it led me to the FJ-1 Fury aircraft at the Yanks Air Museum.

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The 1946 FJ-1 Fury was the US Navy’s first operational jet aircraft. Only 33 were ever built, and only 2 survive today. Its black paint makes it ideal for HDR photography. A single exposure would likely make the black paint appear featureless. I’ve included a photo showing how much detail I captured in the black paint using HDR

A6 Intruder - Classic Design, Might Need Some Work

This is not the first time I have seen this Navy A6 Intruder aircraft. About 15 years ago, I was wandering around the Yanks Air Museum's "boneyard" in Chino California and came across two A6's . I photographed them then and posted them to my blog and my flickr photo stream.  This past March, I visited again and was somewhat surprised to find these same two aircraft still sitting there waiting their turn to be restored. My uninformed guess is that they will still be there 15 years from now. Aircraft restoration is a long process once it gets started and these aircraft show no signs that any restoration is in their near future…

San Diego Air and Space Museum

San Diego has had something for more than 70 years that I have often wished Los Angeles had. A dedicated and comprehensive Air and Space Museum. San Diego has been the site of significant aviation milestones and events. In addition to being considered the home of naval aviation, it also was home to Ryan aircraft which was probably best known for helping to design and build the Spirit of St. Louis for Charles Lindberg's solo trans-Atlantic flight. 

Los Angeles also has a long history of participation in aviation and space flight. Lockheed's Skunk Works developed the first jet fighter, the first stealth aircraft, and the fastest manned aircraft. The North American company developed the Apollo command and service modules that took the first men to the moon as well as the space shuttle. McDonnell Douglas both designed and built passenger airliners in Los Angeles County for decades. 

Despite this impressive history, Los Angeles has never had a comprehensive air and space museum. There was once a small museum, but the exhibits were merged into a much larger science center. It seems the desire for a dedicated museum does not currently exist. The California Science Center is building a museum extension to house its collection of aircraft and spacecraft including the Space Shuttle Endeavour. It will probably be many years until this extension will open to the public.

For this reason and others, I love visiting the San Diego Museum. The entrance features two aircraft. The Convair F2Y Sea Dart and the A12 Mach 3+ spy plane. There are many additional aircraft and spacecraft exhibits inside. I have added several photos of these below. 

 

 

Above the Flight Deck

Kathy and I were recently in San Diego and once again visited the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. As always, she was patient with me and willingly waited for me while I walked around the Museum's enormous flight deck taking photos. It was a beautiful day featuring the scattered clouds and moderate temperatures common to the San Diego coastline. I have previously photographed the aircraft on Midway’s flight deck, so I was deliberately trying to identify a new way to capture them. I thought a new viewpoint might work. As usual, I was using my tripod and taking ten exposures for each (soon to be HDR) image. The use of a tripod to create HDR images was once an absolute requirement because it allowed you to capture those exposures without moving the camera at all. This ensured the post processing software could successfully merge these images into a single HDR image without generating unwanted visual artifacts. What I found was that the software has evolved over the years and has become much more powerful and capable, enabling me to try something new. I set a five second shutter timer on my tripod mounted camera and held it over my head, tenuously raising nearly $8000 of camera equipment about fourteen feet above the flight deck. Not being able to look through the viewfinder, I was trying to align my camera lens in the general direction of what I wanted to capture and to hold the tripod steady, which was exceedingly difficult. I failed several times but succeeded more times than not. I got a few stares from other museum visitors and volunteers, but I ignored that and pressed on, hoping to capture something good.

The photos below are the results.

I Got a Right to Sing the Blues

The first time I saw the US Navy's flight demonstration team, the Blue Angels, I was 5 years old. At the time the team was flying the powerful McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter aircraft which were aptly nicknamed the Rhino. These huge twin-engine jets were unbelievably loud especially when all 6 of them fired up their engines simultaneously. The ground actually started shaking. All of this visual and aural stimulation was way too intense for a 5-year-old so after very little thought, I decided screaming and crying my eyes out would be an appropriate response. On the day this photo was taken at the Yanks air museum in Chino, California I was quite surprised to find this FA-18 aircraft wearing the Blue Angel livery. Unbidden, my mind flashed back to my first encounter with the blues. However, this time I was able to maintain my composure and just framed up my shot. I'm glad my response was a calm one. My wife would never have been able to scoop me up and walk me outside. It had probably been a decade since I had visited this museum and many things have changed including the fact that their aircraft collection has grown significantly.

More than Zero

The photo below is of the world’s only authentic flying A6M5 Zero fighter.

Designed and built by Mitsubishi in Japan during World War II, it dominated the skies anywhere it flew. It dispatched most American built fighters it encountered in battle brutally and quickly. So much so, that the United States began a deliberate effort to develop aircraft and tactics that could blunt this highly effective weapon. At the start of the war, the American P-39 was one of the best aircraft it had to deal with the threat, and it was no match. Japanese Zero pilots quickly learned that the P-39 could not climb with them and used their aircraft’s superior high-altitude performance to their advantage in defeating the P-39 on many occasions.

The secret of the Zero's stellar performance was due in part to its well trained and battle proven pilots as well as it’s lightweight construction. Unlike other fighters of the period, it completely lacked armor protection for the pilot and the fuel tanks. a fact that US fighter pilots found out when they fired incendiary bullets at the zero causing it to quicky catch fire and blow up in midair. 

Many years ago, as a volunteer docent at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California, I had the great honor of showing a group of former Japanese Zero pilots this very aircraft. I would guess most of them were in their 80’s at the time and had traveled to the museum specifically to see the aircraft. It was my understanding that for most of them, this was their first opportunity to see a Zero since the end of the war. Upon entering the hanger which housed the aircraft, without exception they all began to cry and tried to hide their emotional response from one another by wandering off between the other aircraft in the hanger until they could compose themselves. It was a very emotional day. I always find it heartbreaking to see an old person cry. I admit I had to compose myself as well. After a few minutes they all gathered around the aircraft once more and suddenly began shouting a salute to the aircraft in unison. When they were informed that the aircraft would be flown for them that day there were more tears and many more during the Zero's triumphant return to the skies overhead.

I would imagine with so many years now having gone by since that emotional day, most if not all these men have passed away and most probably there are no longer any living memories of flying the Zero during World War II.

This specific aircraft was captured by the US Marines on June 18, 1944. It was returned to San Diego where it was evaluated, and test flown by many pilots including Charles A Lindberg. Eventually it was declared surplus after the war and was scheduled to be destroyed but the Museum acquired it in 1950 and restored it to flight status in 1978.

It has made several good will tours of Japan where it was displayed and flew for huge crowds all over the country, becoming the first Zero to do so since the end of the war.

San Diego Air and Space Museum's Scooter

Here is another flawlessly restored A-4 Skyhawk. This one is wearing the the livery of the USS Hancock's attack squadron 212, aircraft 302 which was once piloted by commander Frank C. Green who was lost over North Vietnam on July 10, 1972 during an armed recon mission. He was listed as missing in action until 2008 when his remains were recovered. He was interred at Miramar National Cemetery in 2010.

Hammers of Hell

On April 30, 1962 at the then super-secret Area 51 facility at Groom Lake, Nevada, those who witnessed the first flight of the new A-12 spy plane were awe-struck by the raw power it displayed. It was so loud that somebody named it "The Hammers of Hell" on the spot.  Built by Lockheed for the CIA, its mission was to spy on the Soviet Union and its client states. Construction plans called for it to be largely built from a rare material called titanium. This was the only metal known that could withstand the super heating the air frame would experience at 3 times the speed of sound and altitudes above 80,000 feet. Using a series of fake companies and import firms, Lockheed was able to obtain the Titanium from non-other than the Soviet Union itself. So they helped the United States build a spy plane that they were never able to shoot down. It just flew too high and too fast. At altitude A-12 pilots reported that the sky turned black, the stars came out and they could see the curvature of the earth. They often out ran missiles shot at them. None were ever lost to enemy fire.