Small Scale Military Headquarters

As some of you may or may not know, I'm a published aviation photographer. A photo I took of a P-51D Mustang (see bellow) was featured just recently on the cover of JP Aviation Monthly. I spend a LOT of time at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California visiting several times a week. I'm their webmaster and official photographer. The Planes of Fame is one of the most famous aviation museums out there, hosting the most flyable or flying aircraft in the collection than anywhere else... not to mention they have the biggest japanese WW2 aircraft collection in the world.
So... recently I've had a lot of doors open for me in the aviation photography field. And one of them is air-to-air photography as well as press access at shows.

This past Saturday, December 4th, 2004... I had the opportunity to go up in the museum's Cessna 210 and fly over Chino/Ontario with the museums most rare plane, the only ALL original (engine too!) FLYING A6M5 Zero in the world. She's one of the museum's flagships. In fact, all her labels in the cockpit are in japanese. She was gorgeous to see on our tail... a sight few have seen since World War 2. So I thought I'd share with you all two images from the flight. There are many many more, which I will be publishing sometime soon on my warbird photos page, http://www.warbird-photos.com






Earlier this year... I had the chance to do a Air-To-Air with the North American P-51D Mustang 'Spam Can' before she changed paint jobs for the Airshow. This session wasn't my best as I haden't upgraded to the pro camera I use now.







And... a few other random photos through the year that I've taken that have been above the normal:

Boeing F/A-18D Hornet (MCAS Miramar's VMFAT-101 'Sharpshooters') on take-off


Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress 'Sentimental Journey'


USN Flight Demo Team 'Blue Angels' #5 Solo Fast Break with Vapor

Wow! Your work makes me envious! I won't post the cruddy pictures I have of planes in flight, though most were taken with a camera not suited for the endevor. I have some good ground shots, however.

Getting back on track... excellent photos and they are obviously professional! Hopefully one day your work will appear in Air & Space Magazine, on the Ghosts calender, or in a published book. I love the looks of that Zero. Hope it isn't flown too often (or if it is, I hope its flown with a skilled pilot) as thats too precious of a plane to loose in a crash!

Thanks for the comments!
The Zero actually does fly a few times per year. If it's not the world famous pilot Steve Hinton, then the person who is flying the Zero here; Kevin Eldridge. Both very skilled pilots. I'm sure you've heard of Steve Hinton, the question we always joke about at the museum is 'What HASN'T he flown?'

A little off topic, but How does one post images on the message like you've done P-51? It seems simple enough - hit the Img button, put in the imag url, hit the img button again - but I can't seem to get it to work! A little help or pointers? Thanks!

Thanks a lot for listening p-51. The photo are awsome. I have actually been to the air museum in chino. I think it was in September 2004. It was when the WWII Spitfires were there. There was a blue spit with double propellars. I actually saw you put the 21st planes (spit/corsair) on the table. I didn't know who you were until you posted those pictures on GP's website. Anyways, keep up the good work. The pictures on your website look great, really professional.

Oh yes! I remember Now I can put the face with the username.

The Spitfires were Mk XIX (The blue one... a recon version of the spitfire with double counter spinning props), Mk IXe, and Mk XIV. All three spitfires are still at the museum.

beautiful pics, P..

Long before this forum i was a huge admirer of your work britt, using your pics as my wallpaper backgrounds! very nice work and thank you, for giving us some great shots of birds we can't see that much.

brian

Thank you for the comments Brian! Much appericiated.

Brand new, taken today. Also with us was a Spitfire Mk XIX flown by Steve Hinton (I'm sure most of you know who he is). Even got some formation shots of them together before the spitfire peeled off leaving the P-38 here for the shoot.

This is a Lockheed P-38J Lightning 'Porky II' (formerly 'Joltin Josie').

Britt,

Have you had your pictures published in magazines like Air classics? Excellent!

-Ski

Unfortunatly, not yet. (if anyone knows how, please contact me!). I have been published in 'JP4 Aviation Monthly' magazine, which is an italy based aviation magazine that's one of the top aircraft magazines in Europe. A photo of my air-to-air with the P-51D Mustang was on the cover of the December issue. I also had a image in an article about the CAF. Then, there was an article on the Planes of Fame Museum in the Jan issue, I had 3 images in that one.

Two more from yesterday. A super rare counter rotating prop recon Spitfire Mk XIX flown by Steve Hinton. I was the last person in the USA to photograph this gal flying. She'll be shipped to the UK (new ownership) sometime soon.


Formation with the P=38J and the Spitfire Mk XIX

I heard about the spit going overseas...that's just ashame! oh well. Britt, were you up the cessna again or did they ever put you up again in the t-6?
great work as always, i'm looking forward to seeing more pics from the monthly events coming soon!!!

brian

Both planes in the last photo have counter rotating props. How rare is that?
Excellent pics.

New one, taken Today - P-47D Thunderbolt with P-51D Mustang.

Great shots p-51!!! That's some fine photography..