Planes of Fame Series

[rpcrowe]

This is the first of a series of WWII Warbirds that I shot at the Planes of Fame Airshow, Chino, Caliornia on April 27, 2016...



Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk in British desert camo. The "shark" teeth on the noses of these British aircraft were the idea for the Flying Tiger nose paint of the American Volunteer Group in China...

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[JBW]

great shot but are you sure that the FT's took the sharks mouth from the Brits?

[rpcrowe]

Yes, this has been well documented. Except that the Brits called them shark's teeth but the Chinese named the AVG plane's mouths "Tigers"...

[JBW]

Yes, this has been well documented. Except that the Brits called them shark's teeth but the Chinese named the AVG plane's mouths "Tigers"...

some push it back a little further:
P-40s first saw combat with the British Commonwealth squadrons of the Desert Air Force in the Middle East and North African campaigns, during June 1941. No. 112 Squadron Royal Air Force, was among the first to operate Tomahawks in North Africa and the unit was the first Allied military aviation unit to feature the “shark mouth” logo, copying similar markings on some Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 110 twin-engine fighters.

[rpcrowe]

Two more of the same Tomahawk

1.

2.


Mitsubishi A6M Zero was the scourge of the Pacific in the early days of World War II. Neither the U.S., nor Britain had a plane in the Pacific which could match the Zero in range or general performance...

3.

4.

5.


However, the superior armor (including self-sealing fuel tanks) and the higher dive speed of the P-40 Warhawk helped it, when using the right tactics, somewhat hold its own against the zero. Here are P-40 Warhawks with American markings...

6.

7.

[flashback]

Love the WWII fighters. Looks like the P-40s are all trainers? I see a P-51 on your site, gonna post here? No F6F Hellcats? Those things were nearly indestructible and beat back the Japanese planes easily.

[joebranko]

Great shots Richard!

[rpcrowe]

I love the WW-2 fighters also... There were no Navy fighters at the Planes of Fame Airshow, this year. Rather, there were none flying on the day I was there. Although they did have a F4U Corsair and a F6F Hellcat on static display. There were P-51 Mustangs, Spitfires, P-47 Thunderbolts, and a P-38 Lightning flying. They also had a P-63 King Cobra (Super Airacobra) which I had never seen in real life before - these were mostly flown by the Russians as part of Lend Lease. I will post images of these on my smugmug site...
https://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Planes-of-Fame/i-CxLTNvC

There was even an P-51 Mustang (with the Allison rather than Rolls Royce engine) I thought that this was an A-36 (P-51 modified for ground attack). There was also a Focke Wulf 190 reproduction and a reproduction of a Japanese Val which had been converted from a Vultee VT-13 trainer for the movie, "Tora, Tora, Tora".


One of the two Zeros at the show is the only flying Japanese A6M Zero with an original engine...

Yes, it does seem like the P-40 aircraft I posted were two seat trainers. I am going to look through all my images to see if they were all (there were 5 at the show) were trainers. They also had a two seat P-51 among several other Mustangs... I was a little confused because this airplane had swastika victory markings around the base of the cockpit. i found out that this aircraft had been converted at a later date: Man’O’War is a P-51D Mustang converted to a two seat configuration and is used by the SoCal CAF to offer the public an opportunity to experience flight in this iconic WWII fighter. I didn't know that there were any two seater Mustangs in combat against the Germans. The Museum was selling rides on this aircraft but the price was too steep for me to consider going up.



By the way, early in my Naval Career I was involved in shooting motion picture footage of famous old Navy Aviators. Among these was, James Thatch who developed the tactic known as the Thatch Weave which allowed the under-performing Navy F4F Wildcat fighter (later replaced by the far superior F6F Hellcat) to successfully engage in combat with the Japanese Zero. Here is an explanation of the Thatch Weave - (not my footage).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGSgbFyZPmw

Here is a really old shot of a Heritage Flight of three Grumman Cat Fighters: (top-to-bottom, clockwise) F8F Bearcat (not flown operationally in WW-2), F4F Wildcat (in British Markings) which was the Navy's front-line fighter at the start of WW-2, F6F Hellcat which replaced the Wildcat and which had a claimed 19:1 kill to loss ratio against Japan...


I did the interviews with Naval Aviators on the Pacific Coast for this film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I6XJCEi-GU

I am going to return to the Flying Leatherneck Museum and reshoot these images:
https://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Airplane...NECK-AVIATION/

[ionian]

These are cracking images Richard - beautiful and perfect pans.

[Tony Britton]

Fantastic image. Nicely done!

Tony
http://tonybrittonphotography.zenfolio.com/

[rpcrowe]

Thanks friends it was a fun day... I shot these images using a Canon 7D and a 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L II lens (at various focal lengths). The shots were at 1/80 or 1/100 second in order to keep the propellers spinning and not allow them to be frozen. This is a great lens but my left arm is a bit tired this morning from holding the lens for a couple of hours and doing those pans...

The planes made some pretty high speed passes right in front of the stands many of the passes were just too fast to follow. I splurged on grandstand seating and sat in the top row. The extra height helped in the shooting angle but, there were a bunch of photographers with long lenses and it took some cooperation to get the images we wanted. I made an agreement with the guy shooting next to me with a 150-600mm Sigma. I would sit when he was standing and he would sit when I was standing. That way we didn't bash our lenses against each other... Sitting on the top row also allowed us to stand when we wanted without blocking the view of other spectators. Of course, I had to get there early in order to snare a top row seat and sit there during some light rain in order to hold the seat...

It's a LOT easier to shoot jets when I can crank up my shutter speed as high as the light and ISO will allow

I left right after the end of the Warbirds flights. I had to make it home (about an hour and a half down the road) to get ready to go to supper at our Daughter and Son-in-Law's home. I didn't shoot the end of the show...

[rpcrowe]

1.
P-51 Mustang


2.
P-51


3.
P-51


4.
Bell P-63 Kingcobra (The first one that I have ever seen in real life)


5.
P-47 Thunderbolt: "The Jug"


6.
P-47


7.
Supermarine Spitfire Mark-9


8.
P-38 Lightning - This aircraft did its best work in the Pacific where it shot down Admiral Yamamoto's plane


9.
C-47 Skytrain (AKA Dakota)

[flashback]

These are great shots, and happy to see the F6F Hellcat, one of my favs for some reason. That and the Spitfire, considered the most beautiful and aerodynamic wing design and a damn fine aircraft. And correct me if I'm wrong but if memory serves, the black and white stripes were markings for Normandy invasion aircraft?

[rpcrowe]

Yep! The black and white "invasion stripes" allowed the allies to immediately identify allied planes. I have heard that some of the "invasion stripes" were really ragged because they were hurriedly applied using mops.

I wonder if these were a form of "invasion stripes" signifying that this P-51A with Allison engine took part in the D-Day Invasion.
P-51A Mrs Virginia


I agree that the Spitfire was one (if not THE) most beautiful of the WW-2 fighter aircraft and was IMO, closely followed in great lines by the P-51 Mustang...

[wtlwdwgn]

Wow, a great series of images. I'm green with envy. TFS!

[rpcrowe]

Thanks Steve...

Lots of credit is due to the airshow venue. I have been at airshows in which the performances were quite far away from the viewing public. At Planes of Fame, the events were fairly close.

Additionally, the credit goes to the 7D combined with the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens. This is a great combination for airshows. However, I am leaning towards thinking about replacing one of my two 7D cameras with the newer 7DII.

I was also sitting in the top row of the grandstand which allowed a good viewing angle.

The downside of this venue are the power wires in the background. I had to shoot pretty well stopped down so I could use a slow shutter speed. Even at my base ISO of 100, I was working about f/22 or so. If my camera had an ISO 25 capability, I could have opened up a couple of stops blurring the BG even more...

Finally, as a old film photographer, I realize that using film, I could never shoot the number of exposures that I can digitally. When panning at relatively slow speeds, lots of images go into the electronic version of the trash can. This is not only because some images are bad but, since shooting in burst mode, I end up with a lot of almost duplicate images. I don't feel economically challenged by shooting large numbers of exposures as I did in the film days.

Adding a ND filter would have allowed me to open the lens but, might very well have impacted the auto focus performance of the camera/lens combination.

[NorthernFocus]

An impressive set of images, Richard. Really well done.

[rpcrowe]

Thanks Dan...

[Dave Humphries]

I have enjoyed this series Richard - thanks, Dave