Pictures Of The Week
Week 17, April 2014
Clockwise from top left:
We commence this week's round-up in smokey fashion with B-17 'Sally B', a stalwart on the UK airshow scene and a familiar sight at Duxford shows. Brian's superb low-angle shot perfectly illustrates her grandeur as she blows away the cobwebs with the first engine runs since winter hibernation, a tantalising way to whet our appetite for the coming airshow season.
Image © Brian Marshall
The Royal Air Force's latest special scheme brings the old to the new, with Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 ZK308 adorned with invasion stripes to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Here Daniel caught the aircraft returning to RAF Coningsby following its first sortie. It would be fair to say that the scheme has certainly divided opinion among the UKAR community!
Image © Daniel Kennedy
Canon EOS 400D + Sigma 400mm ƒ5.6 lensSticking with special schemes, Chris caught the unveiling of a second poppy-schemed Tucano at RAF Linton-on-Ouse. While not as colourful as previous years' display aircraft, it is simple yet effective and evokes a certain pathos which will undoubtedly strike a chord with many an airshow-goer this coming season.
Image © Chris Procter
Canon EOS 5D MkIII + Canon EF 400mm ƒ5.6 L lensHeading across the pond this F-35B Lightning II, complete with a somewhat ungainly airbrake, was captured by Alan Kenny on a visit to Edwards AFB in California. The rest of us will have to wait to see the RAF's latest acquisition in the flesh with its impending UK airshow debut at RIAT and Farnborough.
Image © Alan Kenny
Canon EOS 50D + Canon EF 70-300mm L IS lensOne aircraft that we won't however be seeing at Farnborough again is this Yakovlev Yak-38 Forger, captured by Phil Roberts on a very wet Sunday in 1992. This classic was part of a line-up which, had the weather been better, would also have featured Mig-29, Tu-22M and Su-25, a spectacle which present-day enthusiasts could only dream of!
Image © Phil Roberts
Zenit-E + Photax 300mm lensMaking a change from the usual FedEx traffic, Ben caught the rare sight of a Boeing 727 dropping in at Stansted en-route to Turkey from Newark Liberty Airport. FedEx retired their last 727 from operations in June 2013; indeed this aircraft, N269FE, was on a delivery flight having been donated to the Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Anadolu University, Eskişehir.
Image © Ben Luck
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensRemaining with classic airliners, we conclude this POTW with Mark's portrait of a Martinair-operated McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 at Amsterdam Schiphol. Mark may have had difficulties photographing the intended Nuclear Security Summit traffic due to extremely tight security, but seized the opportunity nonetheless to photograph this beauty taxying in on arrival from Miami, among a wide range of other movements.
Image © Mark Leith
Nikon D7000 + Nikkor 300mm ƒ4 lens
Pictures Of The Week
Week 16, April 2014
Clockwise from top left:
Kicking off this week's POTW is the "Foxy Lady" XP924 captured beautifully by Andy Rodgers. The Sea Vixen team that take care of her are currently in the process of preparing her for the upcoming airshow season, with this shot illustrating her on a recent fast taxi run at Bournemouth Airport. We certainly hope to see this wonderful twin boom aircraft at a number of different shows during 2014.
Image © Andy Rodgers
Canon EOS 50DThe Dassualt Mirage F1 is now entering the twilight of its career with the French Air Force so it's great to see the aircraft tearing up the Mach Loop. This charismatic jet is a personal favourite of the UKAR team so it's pleasing to see the crew pitching the aircraft into a knife-edge pass to provide the photographer with a full profile of the top surface.
Image © Craig Norwood
Remaining in the Mach Loop and with another aircraft that will soon be consigned to the history books within RAF service. As part of the squadron's disbandment, 12(B) decided to paint Tornado GR4 ZA395 in this attractive commemorative scheme. This is the last we will see of this particular scheme however as the aircraft was on it's final sortie to RAF Leeming for deactivation, so it's good to see low level master Lloyd Horgan post this great picture.
Image © Lloyd Horgan
Nikon D7100 + Nikkor 300mm ƒ2.8 VR lensTravelling further afield and across to Brazil, we have this menacing example of a Mil Mi-35M Hind. 9 are currently with the air force with a further order of 12 expected in the near future, with the aircraft certainly suiting the jungle green and grey camouflage well.
Image © Marcelo Lobo da Silva
It's not just the French Mirages in the limelight this week, and Peter's very dynamic shot of a trio of Morroccan F1s at the Marrakech Airshow showcased the fact that, as far as Morocco is concerned, there is certainly life in the old dog yet.
Image © Peter Steehouwer
Nikon D3X + Nikkor 400mm ƒ2.8 VR lensWith "Dave" now confirmed to attend RIAT and Farnborough, images such as this captured by Rod McDonough will hopefully become more common. Here a pair of F-35B Lightning IIs are captured on final approach to land under a very hot U.S. Southwest sunshine, and I personally recommend having a look at the rest of his thread to see further treats including an ex-ROKAF Mk67 Hawk!
Image © Rod McDonough
Our final image from this edition of POTW is one definitely of interest, with Jon London managing to capture a rather unusual angle of a De Havilland Tiger Moth. Supposedly done with no fancy camera trickery, it's certainly a great image with the aircraft valiantly attempting to keep up with it's own shadow under a resplendent spring sunshine.
Image © Jon London
Nikon D5100 + Nikkor 18-135mm lens
Pictures Of The Week
Week 15, April 2014
Clockwise from top left:
One from Ivan's bumper Red Flag offering on the Forum kicks off this POTW in the shape of this gorgeous F-15C launching out of Nellis during the recent Red Flag exercise. Ivan's excellent angle of the aircraft highlights its unique 65th Aggressor Squadron livery.
Image © Ivan Voukadinov
UKAR Staff member Dan Butcher's shot of newly restored Folland Gnat, G-MOUR, follows next. This aircraft, and the display team as a whole, have rightly been getting a lot of coverage on the Forum lately, and from Dan's excellent image presented here it's not hard to see why. We look forward to seeing the North Weald based three-ship formation at a few events in during the 2014 season.
Image © Dan Butcher
Canon EOS 20D + Canon EF 70-300mm IS lensWe don't often get to see Taiwanese aircraft on UKAR, and so Ewald's offering of this pair of Mirage 2000-5s is especially welcome. This shot of the pair of charismatic looking "Deux-Milles" was taken at Hsinchu Airbase.
Image © Ewald Reinders
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensThe Royal Saudi Air Force do seem to be getting out an about on exercises recently, and that's certainly no bad thing, as evidenced and Matthias's superb shot of this F-15 on a rather spirited launch during "Exercise Green Shield" at Nancy, in France.
Image © Matthias Becker
In keeping with international co-operation taking place at French bases, Mont-de-Marsan recently hosted "Recce Meet 2014", and amongst the British photographers present was POTW regular Rich Pittman. Of all the glorious hardware on show, we simply had to pick his charismatic shot of this Mirage F1. A spotters day at Mont-de-Marsan in June is scheduled to take place in June to allow a final hurrah for the F1 before it is retired from French service.
Image © Rich Pittman
Staying at Recce Meet '14, we chose Chris's shot of this beautiful Greek RF-4E leaving the shelters. Like its F1 colleagues, the venerable Phantom in Greek service is sadly in the twilight of its career.
Image © Chris Heal
Canon EOS 1D MkIV + Canon EF 500mm ƒ4 L IS lensKeeping things in France for the final shot this week is Marcel's excellent sunset capture of this French Dassault Rafale, which was taken whilst he stopped at St. Dizier on the way back from the aforementioned Exercise Green Shield at Nancy.
Image © Marcel "Tigerspoon" Bartwicki
Nikon D7000 + Tamron 70-300mm lens
Pictures Of The Week
Week 14, April 2014
Clockwise from top left:
Following on from the unveiling of the 2014 Typhoon display scheme, 6 Squadron released their 100th anniversary jet resplendent in desert camouflage. This scheme is designed to commemorate the squadron's role in the Western Desert campaign during World War II where the nickname "Flying Tin Openers" was coined for the squadron. ZK342 is seen here sat in the sunshine at RAF Leuchars.
Image © Gill Howie (Squadron Prints)
Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensAs the 2014 airshow season draws ever closer, the warbirds are coming out of their winter maintenance and preparations are being made to get the aircraft fully serviceable. Duxford regular Pen Pusher managed to catch the HAC Hurricane sat in the hangar with its pristine Packard Merlin 29 visible for all to see.
Image © Brian Marshall
Kermit Weeks is renowned for owning some rather rare aircraft, his Grumman Duck is certainly no exception. Here the aircraft is seen presenting a beautiful topside pass during the Sun n Fun "Splash-In" event. It's sad to learn that Kermit is closing the Fantasy of Flight, but we hope that these remarkable aircraft stay in the air and can still feel the rush of air under their wings!
Image © Keith Draycott
Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 100-400mm L IS lensAnother image from the Sun n Fun "Splash In" which sees a diverse range of amphibious aircraft and floatplanes flying-in for the event. One of the many beautiful attendees included this 1957 vintage DHC-2 Beaver, captured under the pleasant Florida sunshine.
Image © Andy Amor
Canon SX40The Buccaneer Roll-Out event saw the Buccaneers of Bruntingthorpe out in the Leicestershire sunshine. Alongside these marvellous looking jets were several other participants, including the visiting Hunter T7 FireFox. After the day's main event, the aircraft made an incredibly spirited departure which was complemented with a stunning low-level topside showing the sleek lines of the aircraft.
Image © Aaron Paxton
Nikon D300 + Nikkor 70-200mm ƒ2.8 VR lensThe variety of aircraft in this edition of POTW continues with this picture from Innsbruck Airport. During the winter months the airport is inundated with winter charter flights bringing passengers for the skiing season, with the majority of visiting aircraft coming from the UK. Here Philip Preindl has done an excellent job of capturing a Thomson 757-200 slewing towards port as the aircraft is struck by the crosswind.
Image © Philip Preindl
RAF Cosford has become somewhat famous for the Jaguars based at the airfield. These are used by 238 Squadron of the DSAE who maintain the aircraft in a taxyable state. Arguably the most vivid Jaguar on strength at Cosford is XX119, which was previously active with 6 Squadron before being retired from service. Here UKAR Staff member Peter Reoch has used the sunshine and stormy backdrop to create an incredibly atmospheric picture during the Media Day for the upcoming airshow.
Image © Peter Reoch