New Displays

Click on any picture below to link to the related display.

Lockheed P-38 and F-5 Lightnings are relatively uncommon warbirds. Over the years I have photographed only 10.

The second Italian COSMO-SkyMed mission was launched on a Delta-II booster at 6:31 PM PST on Saturday, December 8, 2007.

I arrived at LAX at sunrise on Thursday, November 29, to photograph the Airbus A380 making a demonstration flight on its second visit to the airport. While waiting for its departure, I photographed several airliners and freighters taking off.

Airbus A380-841 F-WWJB visited Los Angeles International Airport in late November. It arrived at 11:45 AM on Wednesday November 28. It took off on a demonstration flight Thursday morning at 7:30 and returned at 9:00. It departed for Sydney, Australia Friday morning at 8:00 in heavy rain.

I read a report on Inciweb that 13 tankers, including the DC-10 and two SuperScoopers, fought the Corral Fire near Malibu on Saturday, November 24. I went to Fox Field on Sunday morning to photograph the tanker operations. When I arrived there were two Butler Aircraft Douglas DC-7s and four Neptune Aviation Services Lockheed P-2 Neptunes parked at the tanker station.

Joe Davies Heritage Airpark at Palmdale Plant 42 has acquired some new airplanes, including a Grumman F-14D Tomcat and a Boeing B-52F Stratofortress.

The Mojave Airport hosted a Veterans Day observance and fly by. Marine Corps Major William Barber was the guest speaker at the event. Al Hansen brought out his Bell UH-1H Huey, Canadair Sabre Mk.6 (F-86E), and Grumman S-2F-1 Tracker for the public to view up close. Skyraider Bob flew his A-1H up from Ramona and made several passes over the airport. Wallasch Aviation's Canadair T-33A also performed for the crowd.

I flew aboard North American B-25J Mitchell, N30801 Executive Sweet from Camarillo to Santa Barbara and back on Sunday, October 28.

Coulson Flying Tankers sent Martin JRM C-FLYL Hawaii Mars to California to help fight the numerous wildfires. It is temporarily based at Lake Elsinore. Reduced visibility due to smoke has limited its operations.

On Monday, October 8, we toured the Alabama Hills and then drove up to Papoose Flat in the Inyo Mountains.

On Tuesday, October 9, we drove over Cerro Gordo Pass in the Inyo Mountains, then cruised through Lee Flat on our way to Hunter Mountain.

Boeing C-97 Stratofreighters and Stratotankers were still flying with the Arizona Air Guard when I was growing up in Phoenix in the 1970s. There were many C-97s stored at the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center (MASDC) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Several examples were retired to museums in the 1980s.

Century Circle, a display of Century-series fighters has been installed just outside the Rosamond Boulevard gate into Edwards Air Force Base. It is open to the public. Just pull into the parking lot before you reach the guard house.

The Air Force CV-22 Osprey flight test program at Edwards Air Force Base is coming to a conclusion. For seven years, CV-22s have plied the skies over the Mojave Desert, testing the Forward Looking Infra-red and Terrain Following Radar that will be used for nap of the earth flying in bad weather and at night. The final flight of the test program was flown on Wednesday, September 26.

The Worldview-1 satellite was launched from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta-II rocket at 11:35 AM PDT on September 18, 2007.

A-26 Company Incorporated Douglas A-26C Invader paid a short visit to Santa Barbara on September 11 , 2007.

I photographed the 2007 Perseid and Aurigid meteor showers from my back yard.

Several thundercells blew across western Santa Barbara County early in the morning on Thursday, August 30.

The eclipsed Moon was visible over Goleta early on the morning of August 28, 2007.

Time lapse movie of the eclipse. The Moon slides into the shadow of the Earth on the morning of August 28, 2007. Clouds obscured the later stages of the eclipse. The frames were taken at one-minute intervals from 1:44 AM to 4:00 AM PDT. The speed of the action is increased by 900x.

The Santa Maria Airport and the Santa Maria Museum of Flight hosted the annual Thunder Over the Valley show over the weekend of August 25 - 26. In addition to a variety of warbirds and trainers, there were several military helicopters and McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornets from the U.S. Marine Corps and the Canadian Air Force.

Flying displays.

Static displays.

A Minotaur rocket was launched from LF-06 at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:31 Am on Thursday, August 23, 2007.

The Camarillo Airshow was being held over the weekend of August 18 - 19. It featured numerous experimental aircraft, aerobatic performances, and warbirds.

Flying displays, page 1.

Flying displays, page 2.

The International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Endeavor streak across the sky north of Goleta at 9:31 to 9:35 PM on the evening of August 20. The two streaks end where the space ships enter the shadow of the Earth.

Time lapse movie of the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Endeavor. The action has been speeded up by a factor of 25x.

I have assembled a collection of my still photos and time-lapse videos of the Zaca Fire.

Zaca Fire, August 14, 2007

I shot this time lapse movie from 11:54 AM to 1:34 PM on Tuesday, August 14, 2007. The action is speeded up 125x.

See more of my Time lapse movies.

This composite image shows three Perseid meteors in the sky over Goleta on the morning of Monday, August 13. I set up my camera to take a 10-second long exposure every eleven seconds. That way the shutter was open more than 90% of the time. The lens was wide open at f3.5 and the ISO was set to 1600. The camera fired off 796 exposures between 1:27 and 3:55 AM. The meteor's tracks point back toward the shower's radiant in the constellation Perseus. These meteors were captured in exposures made at 1:31, 1:42, and 3:19 AM.

The starry sky revolves around the North Star over 2-1/2 hours in this time lapse video taken during the Perseid Meteor Shower. Several Asia bound airliners cross the sky and a couple of Perseid Meteors flash by. The Earth's rotation is speeded up by a factor of 275x.

General Electric's Boeing 747-121 Engine Testbed departed from the Southern California Air Logisics Canter for Fairbanks, Alaska shortly before noon on August 5. It will fly to Hong Kong on August 6.

Classic Designs of Tampa Bay Boeing 727-21, N727AH showed up at Santa Barbara on July 31, 2007. It was formerly registered N727PX.

The DC-10 tanker, 10 Tanker Air Carrier was sighted heading westbound over Goleta a few minutes after noon on Monday, July 30, 2007 on its second flight after striking trees on a fire fighting mission near Tehachapi on June 26. About 50 minutes later it was sighted heading back to Victorville. It flew from the Southern California Air Logistics Center at Victorville to the DINTY intersection, off the coast of southern California, and back. It suffered damage to the leading and traailing edge flaps on the left wing when it hit the trees. It made its first flight after the incident on Sunday, July 29.

The many panoramic photographs that appear in the displays of the museum have been assembled into a single display. Some of the 360-degree panoramas have been warped to make intriguing little planets.

The annual Independence Day fireworks show over Goleta.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis departed from Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base on 747 Carrier Aircraft NASA Nine Zero Five at 6:04 A.M. PDT Sunday, July 1, 2007. It is returning to the Kennedy Space Center.

The Wings Over Gillespie Air Show was held over the weekend of June 16 - 17.

Arrivals, airshow practice, and a media flight were conducted on Friday, June 15.

Numerous antique aircraft were displayed on the Gillespie Field flightline.

Airplanes that participated in the Quiet Birdmen Airshow and Barbecue on Monday, June 11, took off and landed at the Camarillo Airport. The vintage warbirds of the Southern California Wing of the Commemorative Air Force were joined by the Curtiss P-40N Warhawk and Douglas SBD Dauntless of the Air Museum Planes of Fame at Chino.

The Italian COSMO-SkyMed mission was launched on a Delta-II booster at 7:34 PM PDT, the end of its thirteen minute launch window. The exhaust trail from the ascending rocket cast a shadow across the sky.

The North American A-36 Apache and early model P-51 Mustangs had a very different profile from the familiar P-51D. Here's a retrospective gallery of some surviving A-36A Apaches and P-51A, P-51B, and P-51C Mustangs.

NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a Boeing 747SP modified to carry a 2.5 meter diameter infra-red telescope, arrived at Edwards Air Force Base early in the afternoon on May 31, 2007. It will conduct infra-red astronomical observations above most of the water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere.

A formation flight by three Lockheed P-38 Lightnings was the featured performance at the 2007 Planes of Fame Airshow at Chino. It was two days of sensory overload and unduplicatable warbird experiences.

Flying Displays Page 1: Grumman Ironworks Flight/Missing Man Formation, Silver Wings Stearman Biplane Wing Walking, and Pacific Air Battle

Flying Displays Page 2: Tumbling Bear, Korean Air War, Tailhook Legacy Flight, and Brian Sanders Sea Fury Aerobatics

Flying Displays Page 3: Air Power Formation Flight

Flying Displays Page 4: Lightning Strikes! Formation of Three P-38s, USAF Heritage Flight, and Vietnam Air War

Static displays: Over seventy vintage airplanes were displayed at the airshow.

The Collings Foundation Bombers, Boeing B-17G N93012 Nine-O-Nine, North American B-25J Mitchell, NL3746G Tondelayo, and Consolidated B-24J Liberator Witchcraft arrived at the Santa Barbara Airport on Monday, May 7, 2007 and departed for San Luis Obispo on Wednesday, May 9. The bombers made a number of revenue generating flights, taking aviation enthusiasts aloft for about a half hour.

Tour the Collings Foundation Bombers inside and out.

Boeing B-17G N9323Z Sentimental Journey has been operated by the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force for over a quarter of a century. It arrived at the Santa Barbara Airport on Monday, April 23, 2007 and stayed until Friday April 27.

The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission was launched into orbit by an Orbital Sciences Pegasus-XL booster at 1:26 PM PDT on Wednesday, April 25, 2007. The rocket was carried to the launch position off the Pacific coast near Monterey by Orbital Sciences Lockheed L-1011 N140SC Stargazer, which staged out of Vandenberg Air Fiorce Base. An Antonov Design Bureau An-124 UR-82027 showed up from Bangor, Maine at 10:50 AM.

The Command History Storage Facility at Naval Air Station Point Mugu is home to a large collection of air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles and electronics countermeasures equipment. It is open to the public from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM each Thursday. It is located in Building 112, just outside the main gate.

Flying Displays

Naval Air Station Point Mugu played host to a wide variety of Air Force combat airplanes at the 2007 airshow over the weekend of March 31 - April 1. The headline performer of the show was the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor. The weather was clear, warm and nearly windless. Humid conditions near the coast resulted in spectacular clouds forming in the low pressure above the wings of the performing airplanes.

Static Displays

A wide variety of modern combat airplanes and vintage civilian airplanes was on static display at the airshow.

The first prototype of the Airbus A380, F-WWOW landed at Los Angeles International Airport for the first time at 9:30 AM PDT on Monday, March 19, 2007. It arrived from Toulouse, France with the call sign Airbus 101 Super. It departed on Tuesday, March 20.

I shot several panoramic photos of Santa Barbara Harbor and overviews of the city from the top of the Courthouse tower on Sunday, January 14.

The Planes of Fame Museum at the Chino Airport commemorated its 50th Anniversary with a flight of warbirds on Saturday, January 6, 2007. They flew the Peashooter, a Lightning, a Warhawk, a Spitfire, a Thunderbolt, two Mustangs, a Corsair, a Bearcat, two Skyraiders, a Texan, and a Fennec. A large crowd turned out for the event. The weather was clear and high winds the day before had blown away the smog.

New Display Archives:

2006 New Displays

2005 New Displays

2004 New Displays

2003 New Displays

2002 New Displays

Send a message to Brian.