For the last year i have been fortunate enough to be included in my my Dad’s adventures in aviation photography. This past weekend we took a trip to Chino, California to a place were the planes fly high and still shine like new, the Planes of Fame Museum. It was a whole new experience. The amount of flying restored aircraft was enormous compared to most places which was quite impressive. One of the highlights of going when we did was seeing the F86 Sabre Jet in flight. Which when not in flight is parked in this hanger with a number of other jets, including another sabre, a Mig 17, a D-558 Skyrocket and numerous other jets. Shooting in a hanger is not real hard with the D3, just set the iso to 800, -5 exposure comp and your good.
One of the things i liked best about that hanger besides the jets, was the inside of this engine. I think this is the inside of the Skyrocket but I’m not sure. It was just awesome to see all the metal shears inside this thing designed for wind flow and then to picture that moving, spinning around, just too freakin cool. To think someone had to go around and check each of those little shears to make sure none were bent or starting to break, that would suck.
One of my favorite planes there, also one of the most hidden and tucked away, was the P38 Lightning. This twin boom fork tailed plane design by Lockheed during WWII was a successful plane in the Pacific theater. A truly beautiful aircraft that is definitely on my list to shoot, but that’s not what caught my attention. It was the artwork on the nose. This image of “23 Skidoo”. I’ve looked for the origins of this phrase but have turned up little only thing i could find was that it meant “Get Away Quick!”, needless to say it made me laugh when i saw it on the nose. It reminded me of those cartoon planes. Somehow fitting for the P38, got in got out. It was good seeing all these classic vintage planes restored to there former glory, just too much history too lose.
Images captured with D3, 24-70 AF-S, on Lexar UDMA Digital FIlm