Post amazingly cool pictures of aircraft (Volume 3)

[DodgyGeezer]

[aeropilot]

DodgyGeezer said:

Great head on shots of the 3 x CAF 4 engine heavies.
Sadly of course, the top one, B-17G Texas Raiders, and her crew, perished in the air-to-air collision with the P-63 18 months ago.

[havoc]

aeropilot said:

Great head on shots of the 3 x CAF 4 engine heavies.
Sadly of course, the top one, B-17G Texas Raiders, and her crew, perished in the air-to-air collision with the P-63 18 months ago.

Was talking to someone about that on Sunday at the Midlands Air Festival - he was suggesting that the Flight Director changed the display plan late-on as he wanted the P63 on the right for that pass, without enough thought for how the manoeuvre would be conducted.

[aeropilot]

havoc said:

aeropilot said:

Great head on shots of the 3 x CAF 4 engine heavies.
Sadly of course, the top one, B-17G Texas Raiders, and her crew, perished in the air-to-air collision with the P-63 18 months ago.

Was talking to someone about that on Sunday at the Midlands Air Festival - he was suggesting that the Flight Director changed the display plan late-on as he wanted the P63 on the right for that pass, without enough thought for how the manoeuvre would be conducted.

The so-called Air Boss is likely to get showered in mega dollar lawsuits once the NTSB have published their report......and CAF won't come out of it smelling of roses either, and might end up going the way of Collings Foundation as well (after the loss of 9-0-9)
US shows are really not run like UK or European ones with all the Air-Boss radio chatter rather than the pre-arranged and briefed and silent UK shows (other than normal ATC instructions for take-off/landing etc) where everyone has been briefed on what is going to happen, and then everyone sticks to it.

[Baron Greenback]

Expensive line up, B-2 Spirit stealth bombers assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing taxi on the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., April 15, 2024. Team Whiteman executed a mass fly-off of 12 B-2s to cap off the annual Spirit Vigilance exercise. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Hailey Farrell)
https://theaviationist.com/2024/04/18/b-2-mass-fly...

[hidetheelephants]

Baron Greenback said:

Expensive line up, B-2 Spirit stealth bombers assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing taxi on the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., April 15, 2024. Team Whiteman executed a mass fly-off of 12 B-2s to cap off the annual Spirit Vigilance exercise. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Hailey Farrell)
https://theaviationist.com/2024/04/18/b-2-mass-fly...

That's pretty good going by the maintainers given there are only 20 of them, they're real maintenance hogs and 2 are in longterm repair.

[Voldemort]

hidetheelephants said:

Baron Greenback said:

Expensive line up, B-2 Spirit stealth bombers assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing taxi on the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., April 15, 2024. Team Whiteman executed a mass fly-off of 12 B-2s to cap off the annual Spirit Vigilance exercise. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Hailey Farrell)
https://theaviationist.com/2024/04/18/b-2-mass-fly...

That's pretty good going by the maintainers given there are only 20 of them, they're real maintenance hogs and 2 are in longterm repair.

Per wiki there are now 19 of them. Including all program costs they come in at $2.13 billion each. Maintenance is $3.4 million per month per aircraft and operating costs are guessed to be $135,000/hour.

[hidetheelephants]

Have they decided to write off the last crunched airframe? I guess the B21 is on its way and there will be a lot of them.

[mko9]

I know they wrote off the one that crashed in Guam several years ago.

[DodgyGeezer]

[aeropilot]

DodgyGeezer said:

Does that count not being a real photo....?

[hidetheelephants]

It does appear to predate the current AI fad, terrible quality unfortunately and a google search doesn't show an origin. Pity as I'd have a copy of it for the wall.

[Eric Mc]

It looks like it might be something that was designed for a model box top. Adam Tooby has done some CGI artwork for various Typhoon kits in recent years -

[DodgyGeezer]

aeropilot said:

DodgyGeezer said:

Does that count not being a real photo....?

allegedly it's a genuine WWII that's been colourised - that said it's on FB soooooo....

[thegreenhell]

DodgyGeezer said:

aeropilot said:

DodgyGeezer said:

Does that count not being a real photo....?

allegedly it's a genuine WWII that's been colourised - that said it's on FB soooooo....

The strange pixilation under the starboard wing around the rockets makes it look like they've used a mask to change the background, and then the foremost aircraft is an exact clone of the main subject. It may have started out as a genuine photo, but the composition is very different now.

[aeropilot]

DodgyGeezer said:

aeropilot said:

DodgyGeezer said:

Does that count not being a real photo....?

allegedly it's a genuine WWII that's been colourised - that said it's on FB soooooo....

Yeah, right oh

How would such a photo have been taken in WW2?
Not from the cockpit of another Typhoon that's for sure, so its not likely just a colourised WW2 photo, its a composite made up image. The original b&w image would be quite a famous WD/RAF image by now, likely from IWM archive's and be well known, and thus included in most of the major Typhoon/Tempest books.

[DodgyGeezer]

thegreenhell said:

DodgyGeezer said:

aeropilot said:

DodgyGeezer said:

Does that count not being a real photo....?

allegedly it's a genuine WWII that's been colourised - that said it's on FB soooooo....

The strange pixilation under the starboard wing around the rockets makes it look like they've used a mask to change the background, and then the foremost aircraft is an exact clone of the main subject. It may have started out as a genuine photo, but the composition is very different now.

In fairness I posted from my phone so didn't really see some of the 'finer' detail until I looked at this thread on the 'puter - at which point there are a few things that look weird...


Hopefully this is undoctored - these days it's hard to know, and the issue will only get worse with AI coming along

[Eric Mc]

They are doctored in that they are colourised black and white photos. I have mixed feeling about colourised images. Generally, the colours are not as realistic as they should be and there is a modern tendency to use "washed out" tones for World War 2 images. I blame "Saving Private Ryan" for that

The thing is, there was quite a lot of genuine, good quality, photo imagery taken during World War 2. As far as British operated aircraft are concerned, there is not much to touch the work done by photographer Charles E Brown.

[Fastchas]

Taken from X today. Dunno if already posted, sorry.

[Voldemort]

Fastchas said:

Taken from X today. Dunno if already posted, sorry.

Yes it's been here before but I'm from the grown up part of PH that realises not everyone reads every post on every thread so no objection from me for seeing it again.