CoolPix: Getting Hooked On The F-35

(click pic for hi-res)  F-35B 'short takeoff' from aircraft carrier (photo: LockheedMartin)

 The recent trip to the Naval Aviation Museum didn't include any F-35 spotting at nearby Eglin AFB but I do wish it would have. I didn't have the time or energy to figure out if there was a spot you can hang out where one might be visible. I find myself quite drawn to the airplane these days even tho it's still easy to question whether the program is a good idea... but we are stuck with it at this point so let's encourage those working on the program to succeed!

 I do think there are far too many haters out there that would rather stir up a frenzy than acknowledge that this is one amazing aircraft. And, I suspect the haters are 90 to 100% people who don't know how to engineer an extreme carrier-capable aircraft, they are likely just people who (due to the internet) have a voice and they love to hear it make noise.

 While the CoolPix photo above is from last year showing an F-35B STOVL (short takeoff/vertical landing) making a short takeoff from a carrier deck (note the lift fan doors open and the downward rotation of the aft nozzle) there's an article from the U. S. Naval Institute about how the F-35C (the actual carrier variant) has recently completed shore-based testing of the redesigned hook. Problems catching the wire was an issue that many people made a big stink about, but as is the case when something doesn't work as originally envisioned, you make changes to the design. It's called development and every military aircraft goes thru lots of design changes along the way.

 The internet has made it possible for everyday people to have access to far more info than was ever available when aircraft like the F-14 or B-1 were being developed. The flow of info is great for those with an interest in the work of people handling tasks that are both extremely difficult and vitally important, but it also means that a lot of people who would be better off with their hands tied behind their back have access to the info too.

 Anyway, I hope you enjoy the very cool F-35B pic here and hopefully there will be a video available soon showing the F-35C catching the wire in those shore-based tests. 

CoolPix: Boeing 307 Stratoliner At The NASM (Udvar-Hazy)

(click pic for hi-res) The only remaining Boeing 307 Stratoliner, at the NASM Udvar-Hazy

 I'll start by saying that the late January 2014 AirPigz MeetUp is being planned for the National Navy Aviation Museum in Pensacola Florida. More info on that will be up soon.

 The January 2013 AirPigz MeetUp was in the Washington DC area to experience the two amazing National Air & Space Museum facilities, the one on the National Mall and the Udvar-Hazy. This CoolPix image of the Boeing 307 Stratoliner is one I captured on that trip. I posted the full frame CoolPix version of this image back in February as part of a Stratoliner 'awesome or ugly' poll, but today I'm showing off a heavily cropped version of it. I find these wide-format images really look fantastic!

 You might have seen the post from a couple days ago that revealed the Aerospace 9 art studio project I'm trying to pull together. It's tag line is 'bleeding edge art' since it will focus, at least initially, on some of the extreme aircraft designs from the 1950's and 1960's. The plan is for it to eventually move into the wide world of aerospace machinery from the last 60 years, including the Space Shuttle and up to current day. But I also registered the domain aerodrome9.com to offer civilian, transport, and WWI & WWII military aircraft art. An image like this one of the Stratoliner would eventually be found on the Aerodrome 9 website.

 One of my goals is to offer the artwork in unusual sizes and proportions. Since I'll be building all of the custom frames (including some extraordinary ones) it'll be no problem to offer the unusual sizes. It's my opinion that the Stratoliner image here would look fabulous matted and in a frame that was 37" x 18". Big, dramatic, and beautiful.

 Oh, and I'm very pleased that the Stratoliner was voted overwhelmingly as 'awesome' in the awesome or ugly poll!

CoolPix: The Amazing Days Of The X-15 (Post Flight B-52 Fly-Over)

(click pic for hi-res)  An X-15 after landing in 1961 as the B-52 mothership flies over

 I've been feeding a revived X-15 addiction here the last week or so, and this image from the early days of the program sure drips with 1960's aerospace awesomeness. I've even got a sideline project in the works that includes North American's rocket-powered speedster... the one that spent quite a bit of time at the edge of space while we marched our way toward the Apollo program.

 No details on the sideline project for you now, but this pic hopefully does a great job of stirring up your avgeek juices as we get ready to head into December. Enjoy : )

check out all of the AirPigz CoolPix images

CoolPix: Retro-Art Desktop Pic Of The Amazing Bugatti 100p (Out Of The Past)

(click pic for hi-res)  Beautiful recent artwork of the Bugatti 100p by SkyGateCreations

 To me the Bugatti 100p is one of the most beautiful airplanes ever designed. It's also pretty fascinating that it never actually flew... but of course an extensive project to build a flying replica has been in the works for years now, and it's getting very close to completion. Check out the Bugatti 100p project on facebook for lots of pix and info on the replica.

 Recently a facebook friend of mine (Jenessa) created this fabulous art-deco drawing of the Bugatti and she put it on her SkyGateCreations page on deviantART where you can actually purchase a print of it. Jenessa also created the art for the 'Griffon' stickers that the Precious Metal team had available at Reno this year, and the airplane is wearing one of them too right behind the spinner. She's got talent AND a love for aviation! (especially for the really cool stuff : )

 Jenessa agreed to let me make the Bugatti available to you as a desktop image so you can celebrate the amazing Bugatti 100p in awesome style. To make it work best for desktop use, she removed the words leaving just the stunning lines of the airplane. I hope you download the size that works for you and enjoy. And thanx Jenessa for your great work!

Bugatti 100p by SkyGateCreations desktop pix:

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Free Desktop CoolPix Of Thom Richard And Precious Metal At Reno 2013!

(click pic for hi-res)  Precious Metal and Thom Richard at Reno 2013

 I posted a version of this image as a CoolPix a few weeks back but I didn't offer it in the various desktop sizes as I sometimes do to make it easy for y'all to use it for a computer screen background... and then I had a reason to shape one up for a friend in the 1366x768 size the other day. After I did I thought maybe now was a good time to go back and get that done for anyone wanting a pretty nice pic of Precious Metal and Thom Richard in the new Reno 2013 paint.

 So, what you've really got here is a new CoolPix image above that's cropped tighter than the original and then below are the slightly backed out versions of the original image in the desktop sizes. (I hope that all makes sense : )

 I must say I'm a pretty big fan of what Thom has done with this Griffon powered P-51 in the last few years, and I think the Reno Air Races have been a lot more colorful and enjoyable with PM in the mix. And like Thom, I hold out hope that there's a collection of tweaks that'll make this airplane a potential front-runner in the future. One thing is for sure, it'll be a real adventure keeping an eye on the Precious Metal team!

Precious Metal at Reno 2013 desktop pix:

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CoolPix: Thom Richard In Precious Metal - Reno 2013 Gold Unlimited Race

(click pic for hi-res)  2 props, 6 blades, and a thundering Rolls Royce Griffon engine!

 My day job has me buried at the moment (and for the next 2 weeks) so I needed something impressive and quick to post this morning. I think this pic I captured of Thom Richard in the Reno Unlimited Gold Race on Sunday September 15th from pylon 2 will suffice!

 With lots of mods done over the last year, Thom had hoped that Precious Metal would be a true contender this time around, but the failure of the 'race engine' during a ground run shortly before leaving Florida for Reno meant it was major scramble time. The backup engine was installed and he just barely arrived to the races in time. And while they tweaked the lesser engine thru the week, there just wasn't enough there to put it near the front of the pack.

 However, with no failures during race week, Precious Metal looked good in the new paint working its way into 5th place. With another year of mods and more horses under the hood with that modified race engine repaired, 2014 might be the year we see this mixmaster P-51 become a serious contenda : )

CoolPix: Strega Passed Everyone But Voodoo In The Race For Reno Gold (2013)

(click pic for hi-res) Matt Jackson passing pylon 2 in the Unlimited Gold championship race

 Between recovering from the long drive to Reno and back (4,100 miles), plus getting back to my day-job, trying to keep my FLY Energy Bar project moving forward AND having some form of a life, it's been a challenge to keep AirPigz posts coming this last week. So today I'm taking the easy way out again and just posting one CoolPix image. It's Matt Jackson in Strega from pylon 2 during the big race for the Gold between the fastest Unlimiteds on Sunday September 15, 2013.

 Matt made it look pretty easy getting around everyone in the pack, except for that purple and yellow P-51 called Voodoo, the P-51 with the pilot that knows more about how Strega flies than probably anyone else, Steven Hinton. It was a great race on a perfect day and this picture seems to show that off pretty well. I was also happy to catch at least one Unlimited pic that included the pylon.

 I was having trouble getting the images to come out crisp with the more desirable slow shutter speed, so this one is cranked up a bit, and of course the prop isn't as blurred as we'd all like. I made some real progress on the quality of my images for this year, but wow, there's so much more practice to be done... plus money needs to be spent on one of those crazy huge lenses that look a lot like a megaphone! Still, this pic makes for a nice reminder of my time at pylon 2 during the Unlimited Gold Race at Reno 2013 : )

CoolPix: Midnight Miss III Up-Close As She Wins T-6 Gold At Reno 2013

(click pic for hi-res)  Dennis Buehn and pylon 2 on the last lap of his T-6 Gold Race win

 Way back in the late 60's my dad took me to the Reno Air Races (1967 thru 1970) when I was just a wee lad (born in 1961) and I still have memories of watching the Formula One racers, the Biplanes and the Unlimiteds... but when the T-6's raced in those days I mostly just thought hmmm, those guys are sure noisy and don't really go very fast! Well, now that I'm a lot older and a little wiser, I have more respect for the T-6's and their race efforts.

 I'll still have to admit that I don't pay close attention to the details of the T-6 Class, but that's mostly because there's only so much me to go around. I really don't do a very good job of following the details of the other classes either. There's so many racers and six different classes these days, it's easy to just pay attention to the biggest news. Anyway, the big news last Sunday in the T-6 Class was that Midnight Miss III and Dennis Buehn won the Gold. Given that this T-6 has placed first, second, or third in each year since 2009, I guess maybe 'big news' isn't exactly the right term, but I'm sure the victory was great news for the whole team! Congratulations!

 This CoolPix from the Gold Race on Sunday turned out pretty nice, tho I have so much room for improvement. I'd like to see a sharper image and a slower shutter speed for more prop blur. Those words are so easy to say but getting that done is sure a lot of work. However, the images I captured this year are a vast improvement over the last two years, so I feel pretty good overall. Getting the pylon in the picture adds to the image too, and that was my desire with where I chose to stand.

 I hope you enjoy the pylon view of the 2013 T-6 Class winner, Midnight Miss III.

R2-D2 Racing Jet Class At Reno 2013 - Gets 2nd Place! (CoolPix 2Fer)

(click pic for hi-res)  Rick Vandam and R2-D2 racing in the Gold Jet race on Sunday

 Normally I should show you some of the great pix I captured of Pete Zaccagnino in the L-29 'Just Lucky' winning the Gold Jet Class race on last Sunday at Reno, and I will before long, but my goal for this race was to fetch up some good images of R2-D2 in the back seat with Rick Vandam in the L-39 'American Spirit'. Well, I think these two CoolPix here show I did a pretty good job! Plus, since I just drove 2,100 miles back from Reno (at a rather leisurely 47 hours total elapsed time compared to the 35 hours going west), I figure I can show you whatever pix I want!

(Jet Class Gold race results from Sunday)

 Rick Vandam and R2-D2 are going a tad over 500mph in this pic and at somewhere around 100 feet off the ground! Wow, it's amazing stuff to see from this close to be sure. I was out at pylon 2 for the Sunday afternoon races which included the Gold race for the T-6 Class, the Sport Class, the Jets, and the Unlimiteds. Even better, I was using a demo camera and lens from Nikon who is both a sponsor of Reno and provides a support-team from Nikon Professional Services during the event, just like they do at Oshkosh these days. They take care of Nikon shooters thru the week as well as attempt to convert others... I'm one of the 'others' but after using a Nikon D7100 with an 80-400 zoom lens, I'm quickly re-thinking my camera equipment future. Thanx Nikon for the excellent gear to be able to get pix like these two and the one of Steven Hinton winning Gold Unlimited in Voodoo.

 (click pic for hi-res) Cropped in on the same pix for a closer look at Rick and R2-D2!

 I've got loads more Reno 2013 pix to share once I recover from white-line-fever, but I'll say right now that the 50th anniversary of the National Championship Air Races at Reno Stead Airport were safe, exciting, and fantastic... can't wait til next year!

There's Magic In The Man! Steven Hinton Wins Reno 2013 (In Voodoo)

(click pic for hi-res)  Steven Hinton wins Reno Unlimited Gold in the P-51 Voodoo!

 I rushed to get this hi-res pic of Steven Hinton in Voodoo posted - it's from the Gold Unlimited race and I captured it less then an hour and a half ago from pylon 2 out on the course! This pic is from an earlier lap in the race, not the final lap, but it is from the Gold race.

 Congratulations Steven Hinton and the entire Voodoo crew!

 Matt Jackson took second place in Strega and Sherman Smoot raced fast to third place in Czech Mate. It was a great week and a great day of racing. More pix and info after I make the loooong drive back to Indiana : )

(here's the link to the Reno Breitling Gold Unlimited results)