CoolPix Triple Play: 2012 Reno National Champion - Strega!

(click pic for hi-res)  Get up close with the 'Merlin Power' sticker on Strega's wingtip!

 I updated the AirPigz facebook cover pic last night with a version of my incredible pic of Thom Richard and his Precious Metal P-51 (with the Rolls Royce Griffon and conter-rotating props) and that got me all hot and bothered about Unlimited air racers. So, I dug out a couple unusual pix of Strega from Reno 2012 for a CoolPix triple play... the one above that brings you in really close with the Merlin Power sticker on the right wingtip, and the one below that shows the cockpit area of the airplane, with the canopy open, as it was sitting in their spot in the pit. I like the details in this cockpit pic along with the Reno National Champion history behind the canopy. I figure these pix might make for a sweet December treat for anyone who respects and admires this airplane, especially since as far as I know the airplane is currently still retired from racing (after having won again in 2012 with young Steven Hinton at the controls).

(click pic for hi-res)  Unlimited racer Strega: that's a lot of winning at Reno!

 And then, to put these up-close images in better perspective, I've included a pic I captured of Strega on Friday (9-14-12) at Pylon 4 at Reno 2012. That view from behind is the view every competitor in the last several years has had of this amazing Unlimited racer. Strega: a true Champion.

 Thank you Team Strega!

(click pic for hi-res)  Steven Hinton and Strega just past pylon 4 at Reno 2012

Video + CoolPix: Aero Telemetry Starts Carving 20 Foot Wingspan Spruce Goose!

 Today marks the 65th anniversary since Howard Hughes made the one and only flight in the fascinating 320 foot (and 11 inch) wingspan Hughes H-4 'Hercules' - or Spruce Goose as we've always known it. That makes a pretty cool day to find out about a new project by the guys at Aero Telemetry. If you don't know about the off-the-scale cool stuff done by Aero Telemetry, check out:  OMGosh! Museum Quality, Half Scale (UAV) Hughes H-1 Racer.

 Watch the video above and read the info below (from the Aero Telemetry youtube page) - and then keep your eyes open for more updates on the project both here on AirPigz and at AeroTelemetry.com... oh, and check out the CoolPix of the Spruce Goose on its only flight from 65 years ago today at the bottom of the post : )

Video screenshot showing the 20' wingspan Spruce Goose fuselage halves

On November 2, 1947, Howard Hughes made history by flying the world's largest airplane, the mighty Hughes Flying Boat, more commonly known as the Spruce Goose. 

Today, 65 years later, November 2, 2012 Aero Telemetry is pleased to introduce the next airplane in our Hughes Aircraft Company Trilogy.... The AMA legal (120lbs), museum scale, 20 ft wingspan Spruce Goose.

Using experience gained from building and flying our original airplane for Martin Scorsese during the movie The Aviator, this new airplane is being meticulously designed with the most precise attention to detail.
Working with The Western Museum of flight and several ex-Hughes Aircraft employees, Joe Bock and his team of Aviators were given access to "never before seen" photographs and original Hughes Aircraft Company Flying Boat blueprints and documents detailing the technical intricacies of the complex and graceful Hughes Flying Boat. Joe and his team have turned this information into one of the most graceful and beautifully detailed model airplanes ever built. 

Aero Telemetry and Joe Bock have created the world's largest flyable, most historically accurate and detailed scale model of the Spruce Goose...again.

And so begins the life of the Aero Telemetry Flying Boat.

(click pic for hi-res) Howard Hughes on Nov. 2, 1947 and the only flight of the Spruce Goose

CoolPix 2Fer: Up Close And Personal With The X-15 Rocket Nozzle!

(click pic for hi-res)  Looking deep inside the exhaust nozzle of the X-15's rocket engine!

 I captured these two pictures at the end of January 2012 during the AirPigz meetup at the Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio, but before I tell you any more about why I think these pix ar so cool, I wanna tell you that I've recently decided that there's gonna be an AirPigz meetup on Fri thru Sun (January 25, 26, 27 - 2013) at the National Air & Space Museum (both the National Mall facility and the Udvar-Hazy) near Washington DC. I don't have any more details yet to share just yet but there will be a dedicated post coming soon with more info. If you're interested in possibly making the trip to tour the museum and meetup with other avgeeks in the process, click here to send me an email to be added to the info list for the AirPigz January 2013 National Air And Space Museum MeetUp.

 Now, back to these X-15 pix... only three North American X-15's were built. X-15-A-3 (#56-6672) was destroyed in a tragic accident that took the life of Michael Adams in 1967 when control was lost and the airframe broke up due to extremely high g loading. The other two remaining X-15's are the one on display in the Research & Development Gallery at the Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio (X-15-A-2 #56-6671) and the one hanging from the ceiling at the National Mall building at the National Air And Space Museum in Washington DC (X-15-A-1 #56-6670). The amazing thing about the X-15 on display in Dayton Ohio is that the R&D Gallery is set up to allow you to walk right in-and-around the aircraft! It's a most amazing opportunity to be within inches of these historic aircraft. (please remember, no touching!)

 When I walked around behind the X-15 I was really taken by the opportunity to look right up inside the rocket engine exhaust nozzle... realizing that back in the 1960's when I was just a kid a massive amount of thrust (up to 57,000 pounds) had expanded thru here and pushed this little black beast at speeds up to and well over 4,000 mph! (the fastest X-15 flight was in 1967 at 4,519 mph) - And I'm standing looking right inside that nozzle. Wow. Amazing. (learn more about the Reaction Motors XLR99 that powered the X-15)

 Then I noticed that the view inside the nozzle was actually kind of artsy looking. But way more than just artsy, this cool visual was the business end of one of the most amazing aircraft ever designed and built! So I did a little playing around trying to get a really good image looking only at the radial grooves, the coloration inside the nozzle, and the actual central port. The picture above is that view. One of these days I'm gonna have a big enlargement of that hanging on my wall... and if things go like I hope, you might too.

(click pic to enlarge) Wider exhaust view of X-15-A-2 (#56-6671) at the Air Force Museum

 This second picture is here to give you a better perspective of what you're seeing in the tight shot. And again, the most amazing part of the X-15 experience at the Air Force Museum's R&D Gallery is that you can walk right around this incredible piece of aviation/aerospace history. Truly a fantastic American moment right there! I'm looking forward to seeing the other X-15 at the Air And Space Museum in Washington DC in late January, but I gotta say I'm ready at any time to get back to Dayton and see this beast up close and personal once again : )

 
more X-15 on AirPigz

To The Edge Of Space And Beyond! X-15 CoolPix 2Fer

(click pic for hi-res)  North American X-15 on the B-52 wing about 50 years ago

 With all this Felix Baumgartner edge-of-space talk, I found myself getting all misty-eyed thinking about the North American X-15 and the amazing things that little black beast accomplished in the late 50's and early 60's. I figure this is a good time to offer up a couple hi-res CoolPix images for you to gaze at.

 To put it all in perspective, Felix plans to jump from 120,000 feet, but the X-15's highest flight was in 1963 when Joe Walker reached 354,199 feet. However, almost all of the fastest X-15 flights occurred in and around that 120,000 foot altitude. These fastest flights ranged from 3,900 mph all the way up to 4,519 mph! And without question, the X-15 provided so much important data for understanding both the space environment, and the transition from space back into aerodynamic flight.

 I hope you enjoy these two nostalgic pix of one of the most fascinating flying machines ever designed and built, but I also wanna encourage you that I can feel an 'X-15 week' here at AirPigz coming on before long... and wow, that's gonna be cool : )

[In the X-15 days and still today, the USAF and NASA award astronaut wings for flight at 50 miles in altitude (264,000 feet) - thus consided a 'spaceflight', while the FAI considers spaceflight at 100 kilometers (328,000 feet) in altitude]

 (click pic for hi-res) One of the three X-15's built landing on the California lakebed in 1961

CoolPix: Avspecs de Havilland Mosquito In The Air - Bravo!

(click pic for hi-res)  The amazing de Havilland Mosquito in the air in New Zealand

 Words aren't needed here... just click this CoolPix to open it up big and savor the amazing work done by the people of de Havilland over 70 years ago, and the restoration work done the people at Avspecs (and others) over the last eight years. The Mosquito is a stunning human accomplishment, and this is the only one flying in the entire world.

(Mosquito on AirPigz)

(photo: Avspecs open house Saturday 9-29-12: from a friend of AirPigz in New Zealand)

CoolPix: 'Sawbones' Sea Fury At Pylon 8 - Reno 2012

(click pic for hi-res)  Sea Fury 'Sawbones' against the perfect Reno sky at pylon 8

 First things first... the Avspecs Limited Mosquito has flown! Sometime early in the day Thursday September 27 (While it was still Wednesday here in the US) the Mosquito took to the skies once again. What an exciting accomplishment!  Congrats to all involved, and I hope to have some cool details to post soon.

 I also wanted to point it something else before I point to the CoolPix image posted above. In the 3+ years of AirPigz I've posted a pretty nice collection of the hi-res images (1600 pixels wide) that can be scrolled thru and enjoyed by checking out the CoolPix category... I just wanted y'all to know that spending some time checking out all that avgeek goodness is probably something you should do : )

 This particular CoolPix is of the Sea Fury Sawbones flown by Curt Brown which actually captured 4th place in the big Gold Unlimited race on Sunday 9-16-12, the last day of the 2012 Reno Air Races. This pic is from Saturday's Silver Heat 3B where the airplane came in first with a speed of 402.338 mph. I was out at pylon 8 for five or six races of the various classes on Saturday, and this was one of the better images I captured that trip.

 I've improved significantly over the one-and-only trip to the pylons that I had last year, but there is so much to learn about getting good images of airplanes that are literally only a few hundred feet away from you traveling at over 400 mph. This is a good time to thank my friend @adamcanfly for the use of his Canon 70-200 zoom lens - I'm very thankful to have had the use of it. One of the biggest challenges with the prop driven aircraft is to use a slow shutter speed to get a really blurred prop without blurring the entire airplane due to a poor pan of the camera. I came away from Reno 2012 with a pretty good collection of useable images from the pylons, but I can't wait to get the chance to be out there next year to do even better. If you don't already know, access to the pylons is only for those who have media credentials for the Reno Air Races... it's also one of the greatest experiences an avgeek will ever have!

 Sawbones is an interesting airplane to me since I live in Warsaw Indiana, which just happens to be the orthopedic capital of the world. Three major producers of artificial hip, knee and other joint products are all headquartered right here. Sawbones is named as such because its owner Robin Crandall is an Orthopedist who deals with the repair and replacement of various bones in the body. Maybe Sawbones will stop by Warsaw for a visit someday... probably not! Anyway, I hope you enjoy seeing a pretty crisp pic of the beautiful Sawbones running the course at Reno!

CoolPix: Crowd Favorite Rare Bear - In The Evening At Reno 2012

(click pic for hi-res) The beast lives on... the Grumman F8 Bearcat racer: Rare Bear

 I respect and admire the P-51 Strega for what it represents; a team of people that have pursued power, speed, reliability, and flying consistency. If you don't respect what that airplane stands for then you don't really love air racing... and a Sea Fury like September Fury is an awesome and beautiful airplane - one that I have loved since seeing Frank Sanders fly aerobatics countless times at Oshkosh way back in the day... and I really appreciate what the P-51 Precious Metal brings to Reno racing with its fabulous counter-rotating props and a colorful team that is really enjoying their chance to play in the big game... but deep down in my heart, I can't deny that I'm a Bearcat guy. With that in mind, I'm not afraid to tell you that Rare Bear stole my heart a really long time ago.

 It really all started for me when I was a kid and my dad took me to the Reno Air Races in the late 60's. Even tho I wasn't even 10 years old yet, I understood the amazing things going on out in the desert in Nevada. The first Unlimited racer to stir my imagination was another F8 Bearcat named Conquest 1 flown by Darryl Greenamyer. Conquest 1 wasn't just a Bearcat tho, it was the dominate racer of its day, and the airplane that set the speed record of 483.041mph on August 16, 1969. I had the amazing opportunity to be at Reno and see Conquest 1 race from 1967 thru 1970. The Grumman F8 Bearcat was forever burned into my mind as the ultimate racer, and Darryl Greenamyer was my hero.

 So now, in the 'modern era' of Reno air racing, the ultimate racer role (in my mind) has been played by Rare Bear. The Bear has a long and impressive history of winning, even tho for the last several years it's been looking at Strega from behind... sometimes pretty far behind. But it remains a crowd favorite. At this year's Gold race, the announcers stirred up crowd reaction to the different racers, and Rare Bear got the biggest response. We love all the racers, but there's just something special about Rare Bear! So today I'm sharing an awesome CoolPix image of Rare Bear that I captured on Thursday evening at Reno. It was actually about an hour before I got that amazing pic of Precious Metal running after sunset with the wild reflections coming off the props. That was a really great evening for me!

 I hope you enjoy this beautiful CoolPix image of a truly fabulous racing airplane. And, for your continued enjoyment, I've made it available to you in four popular desktop sizes in case you'd like to look at this amazing beast every day : )

Rare Bear in the evening at Reno 2012 desktop pix:

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 You might also like these other AirPigz categories:
Reno Air Races
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over 110 CoolPix images

CoolPix: Reno 2012 - Precious Metal Evening Engine Run... Wow!

(click pic for hi-res)  Precious Metal engine run on Thursday evening 9-13-12 at Reno

 I had several really great opportunities to take my photography up a few notches at the Reno Air Races this year, and one of the best of them was when Thom Richard moved his Rolls Royce Griffon powered P-51 Precious Metal out onto the Reno/Stead Airport ramp for an engine run up after the sun had set. Thom adds a lot of fun to the Reno pilot list with a very outgoing, open and accessible style... and when you add in that beautiful counter-rotating prop P-51, you get a really colorful addition to the Reno Air Races scene!

 The possibility of having the chance to capture an image like this one is exactly why I packed a full size tripod (disassembled) into my small suitcase for the trip. And when I found out that he was gonna do this after-sunset engine run, I knew there'd be some sort of cool prop effect going on, especially since the prop was very freshly polished. You may already know that the prop on Precious Metal this year is actually an all new one. This one has longer blades with a very different tip shape. The reworked prop has added 64 mph to the airplane's top speed! That's a huge increase and has put the airplane in the position of being faster than it's ever been in its race history. In fact, the race on Friday last week was the first 'Gold' race that the airplane had ever been in. If not for the pesky loss of an inner gear door during the Championship Gold race last Sunday, Precious Metal stood a very good chance of being in third place. It's exciting to realize that the future is looking very bright for this shiny Unlimited racer.

 I had the chance to sit down with Thom last Thursday and got some cool details on the changes to the prop - I'll have that post will be up before long. For now tho, I've taken one of the best pix from the evening engine run and put it here as the CoolPix image above. It's also available below in four popular desktop sizes in case your looking for something a little different for your computer's desktop pic. Those six polished blades made some wild reflections from the lights off in the distance. It really makes that wild prop combo look electrified! And you always gotta love some blue flames coming out of the exhaust too! Enjoy : )

Precious Metal evening engine run desktop pix:

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 You might also like these other AirPigz categories:
Reno Air Races
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over 110 CoolPix images

CoolPix Triple Play - Chasing Strega At Pylon 4 (Reno 9-14-12)

(click pic for hi-res)  Strega way out in front in Unlimited Heat 2A on Friday at Reno

Get Reno Air Race results on this RARA page

 It was a great day of racing on Friday September 15th at Reno 2012, and it was capped off with an Unlimited Heat at the end of the day. I had the golden opportunity to be out at pylon 4 for that race to work on my photographic skills shooting airplanes going almost 500 mph that aren't very far away! I have so much to learn to do a really great job, but I did get several decent images that I'll be sharing before long. I really liked this one of Strega tho, partly because it shows off the view that all the other race pilots had of Strega... the one from behind!

 The consistent front-of-the-pack running of Steven Hinton and Strega is truly remarkable. In this race, Steven pulled away from Rare Bear, September Fury and Precious Metal with amazing ease, and he stayed well out in front the whole race. Strega finished with a speed of 473.257, with September Fury in second with 450.943, Rare Bear in third at 435.822 and Precious Metal in fourth at 420.700. However, we know that these other guys have the potential this year to be right there, and with the stakes low in this race, it's hard to separate out the mind games from the functional realities of the airplanes. Saturday and Sunday racing should be spectacular!

 I have a lot of images that I wanna share with you but there's just not enough time in the day so I've chosen to share this image of Strega in the CoolPix size in three different forms. Playing around in photoshop allowed me to stylize the image in a couple of really cool ways. You may not like what I've done here with the extra two, but I think these additional versions are pretty hot. Be sure to click the pix to open them up big. Then take a moment to enjoy Strega showing why she's still the one to beat : )

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CoolPix: Rare Bear And Strega - Thursday Evening At Reno 2012

(click pic for hi-res) As the sun was low I found Rare Bear & Strega together on the ramp

 The evening sun was wonderful at Reno last evening (as it often is here) and while a really sweet photo op that had been planned for Rare Bear and Strega kinda fell apart, there were a few moments where the two were in a pretty nice frame together. So, here's a great view of the top two qualifiers in the Unlimited Gold, both qualifying less than 10 mph away from 500 mph! There's an Unlimited Heat coming up late this afternoon that I actually have the opportunity to be out at a key pylon for to get some really good pix... that's why this is a pretty simple post, I need to get myself ready to be shuttled out there.

 I've been busy fetching pix all day already and should have something more detailed for you to check out before long. Until then, I hope you enjoy this hi-res CoolPix picture of two of the most fascinating airplanes on the planet : )