Feb 2, 2011 | Aviation
The 100th Bombardment Group took off on 6 March, 1944 to bomb Berlin. Sixty-nine bombers did not return that day, fifteen of those from the 100th (the movie & TV series 12 o’clock High was based on the Bloody 100th). What you see here those members of the 100th that were able to make it to the “mini” reunion at the Palm Springs Air Museum. I couldn’t help but take photos of all the family members photographing the group portrait. There were lots of great grand kids present which we pretty cool.
Five of these gentleman spoke about their life in the 100th. We had a crew chief talk about all that was required to keep the B-17 in the air. One spoke about when the first ME-262 German Jet (the 1st ever jet fighter) ripped through a flight taking a deadly toll. One spoke about how one by one, members of the crew in his B-17 lost their life during a flight and with a fragment in his eye, bullet to the chest he managed to get his plane back to England. And then there is Bob and his story. It starts off with “two days after graduating from high school I enlisted…..”
“…at age 18 and by age 20, I was the pilot of a B-17.” On that faithful day, 6 March, 1944, Bob related the story of his flight and how, after the third flight of fighters going through them, his tail gunner looked in the skies around the Our Gal Sal (their B-17) and saw no other B-17s! They were the only ones left and felt…very lonely to say the least. After the presentation, Jake & I purchased the new book High Noon over Haseluenne and were able to get Bob to autograph it for us. We knew we were going down for a lecture but had no clue the reunion would be going on or we’d hear from folks like Bob. It was a great afternoon, made some new friends and able to say thanks personally to some of the greatest generation!
Feb 1, 2011 | Aviation
There was no way Jake & I couldn’t cruise the tarmac even though the light was high in the sky. What you see here is both camera and computer craft. The aircraft (in order) P-40 Warhawk, P-63 Kingcobra, B-25 Mitchell and P-47 Thunderbolt are all very much flyable. Today though they had been pulled out on the tarmac because the North Hangar / European Theater Hangar was cleared out for the the gathering of the 100 Bombardment Group “mini” reunion. Though the light was desert hard, it worked with the lines of the aircraft. On the computer side, images were finished with either ACR, Nik Viveza & Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.0
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
Feb 1, 2011 | Aviation
Projects and articles from last fall are now getting out. I have lots of them and I wanted to highlight this one because I really like the online presentation. It’s just darn cool. Give Airplanista a gander (pg38 I hear is particularly nice), it might be the wave of the future, here now!
Jan 31, 2011 | Aviation
And right after Sentimental Journey took off, a PT-17 Stearman took off. Good panning practice and always fun to see the old classics in the air!
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jan 31, 2011 | Aviation
Our friends from the AZ CAF brought Sentimental Journey up to Palm Springs Air Museum so we headed down to see our friends and take in the great Saturday presentation. We really didn’t go down for the purpose of photography but we did have our camera with us, naturally. So on one of the afternoon flights of Sentimental Journey, we head out to the flight line to photograph the happenings. The last image made me glad I took out the camera; it’s all about the people! It was a great day at the museum! mtc
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jan 31, 2011 | Aviation
Last Sept at the Reno Air Races, I was very fortunate to be asked along on a editorial shoot with my bud and aviation mentor Richard of world famous
