JDW Photos and Life

This message will wrap up the WWII propeller-driven airplanes. Next up is history's transition into jets. This is a P-40 Warhawk made famous with the "Flying Tigers" in the Pacific. A key role for the P-51 was to protect bombers. I like that they are both in this photo. Stay in touch! Doug White

Two very similar airplanes are in this message. Both of these airplanes are mid-engine design with a drive shaft along the pilot's feet. I am quoting some information from internet sources. I am not knowledgeable of all plane details! The first plane is the P-39 Airacobra (odd spelling, right?). It was the first fighter to use a nose tricycle landing gear. You also see one of its machine gun fires through the nose cone. It also had guns in the wings as well as in front of the pilot shooting through the propeller (important timing for sure!). Modeled after the P-39, this plane is a P-63 Kingcobra. Though improvements (the big item was the laminar-flow wing = SPEED) were made, the US Army Air Force did not accept it for combat use with the P-51 coming into the picture. The Soviet Air Force used the P-63 in combat. Stay in touch! Doug White

Who doesn't like a P-51D? I still think it is one of the sharpest looking WWII aircraft with it's blend of lines and speed. Stay in touch! Doug White

The show continued its march through time and prop-driven airplane development. This is the B-25 Devil Dog. I "think" this is an A-26 Invader though am far from certain. Stay in touch! Doug White

Actually, I have no idea about the count of e-mails implied in the subject! I'm just starting a new sequence. I am extra busy right now with work so messages are less frequent. As the show wrapped up the Pearl Harbor portion, the participating planes flew one last formation before landing. These pilots perform this show all over the country and obviously skilled. The show then progressed to the stages of WWII after Pearl Harbor and transitioned to the bombers and fighters of WWII. This is a nice shot of the B-17 without all the smoke/haze of the explosions.

The sky started to get pretty hazy with all the explosions! The B-17 takes off to get into the action as the story progress to America's response to the attack. Stay in touch! Doug White

More fireworks! These explosions created several good smoke rings rising into the sky. Stay in touch! Doug White

The show progressed to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This crew takes great pride in their pyrotechnics! We could feel the pressure wave of the explosions from our observation point. Obviously, not all of the Japanese planes are authentic (I don't think any of them are this year). They are various models painted and playing the role of the Japanese. I believe some of these planes were actually in the Tora-Tora-Tora movie. Stay in touch! Doug White

I knew my airplane buffs would step up on my terrible identification! I appreciate and welcome the input! First, let me clarify the show. Though titled "Tora-Tora-Tora" implying Perl Harbor and the Pacific, the show actually began with the bombing of Britain. The first two planes I shared (and this note) were participants in that phase of WWII. The top plane is a  Hawker Hurricane and the bottom is a late model Spitfire (per my knowledgeable friends). One more angle of the Spitfire on a beautiful, sunny day. I love the detail of the blue camouflage caught in the sun in this shot. Stay in touch! Doug White

Stay in touch! Doug White

The Tora-Tora-Tora re-enactment has been at every Houston air show I've seen. It doesn't get old as it is good to remember our history and see the valor that generation demonstrated. I am HORRIBLE with plane identification so you will just have to enjoy the planes as photos! Stay in touch! Doug White

This is the last of the Snowbirds as they wrapped up their show with a wide, massive loop formation with all jets smoking. Next up - Tora Tora Tora WWII demonstration. They are climbing in formation and will continue their loop by flying over the top and away from us before coming back at us - seen in the second photo. Stay in touch! Doug White

I don't know why, but I like seeing the altitude perspective in these formations. I'm pretty sure these jets are stacked but when the turn, they look like they are all in the same "plane" (geometry plane!). As they continue the turn shown in the previous photo, they now show their underside formation to the crowd. Stay in touch! Doug White

I'll finish up the Snowbirds with the next three e-mails tonight. I send two photos per e-mail to avoid getting bounced for file size for some people. More precision spacing and formation. These two were performing a slow roll with their canopies facing each other. Stay in touch! Doug White

Another tight formation with perfect spacing. This is the bottom of a large heart smoke trail laid out by these 4 jets. It was perfectly symmetrical and consumed most of the sky. I did not have a wide-angle lens to capture the full photo. Stay in touch! Doug White

This team put on a great show with several opposite approach passes. The skill to line up and time their rolls, etc. is still impressive. It's always fun to try and catch the photo just as they pass because you can't see both planes in the camera until it is too late! They gave us several opportunities to capture the action and you see this photo hit the timing nicely. You can also see that I am tracking the plane in the back moving left to right as it is in clear focus. The combination of me moving the camera with that plane plus the opposing speed of the other jet doubles up its apparent speed and even 1/1600 sec can't freeze the movement of the second plane. Stay in touch! Doug White

I'm doubling up today as I have been busy with grading and other challenges and haven't sent many photos lately. In this first photo, the jets are at the bottom of a loop flying straight at us and you can see the altitude perspective of the formation. As they approach, they continue their loop, we get to see their perfect spacing and alignment once more. Stay in touch! Doug White

  The Snowbirds are the air show team of the Canadian Air Force. Their jets are not the loud supersonic beasts of the Thunderbirds but the pilot skill is still impressive. This is the second time I've seen them perform and I loved them both times. We will get to enjoy their flying formations over the next few days and I think you may agree with me. They took off in groups of three and I just like the vantage point of the Thunderbird jets in the foreground. Pretty close to flawless spacing and form.

After landing, the F/A-18 officers waved to the crowd as they taxied their aircraft. Man, they look young! Livin' the life! The next demonstration was the C-5M Galaxy. What a beast of a plane! They used this flight as a joint forces training mission having loaded two Apache helicopters in the cargo bay. They flew out to the gulf, circled a bit, and then returned later in the show to land. Stay in touch! Doug White

The crew made several high-speed passes during the air show making plenty of noise and entering complex maneuvers. Some of these passes were relatively close for the lens on the camera making keeping them in frame a challenge! This first photo is just that - barely in-frame with a small clip off of the tail. This is the full frame of the photo and not cropped during processing. It is not an award-winning shot due to the cropped tail. However, it is one of my favorite shots of the air show due to the clarity of the shot made even more impressive knowing the jet is well over 500 mph right in front of me! You can clearly see the vapor clouds on the trailing edge of the wings in level flight. The jet was well over 95% of sonic at this point (my guess is more like 98%). I hope you appreciate the detail of the two pilots with a clear view of the weapons officer's hand on his front console. This is another one of my favorite shots. The jet is making a low pass simulating a missed tail-hoo...

This first shot is a high speed banking turn. Again, the vapor flash on the low pressure side of the wings is a great indication of the G-forces the crew must endure. The engines are lit bright with heat waves clearly visible. Even the wing tips get into the vapor flash action. You can see the tornado swirl in the top wing flash. Inverted flight is not all that exciting to some but inverted and low altitude is still impressive to me. I flew RC planes for many years and you have to tell yourself to give down elevator when inverted. It just feels odd and is even more odd at low altitude where there is no margin for error. Stay in touch! Doug White

As the pilot took off, he left the landing gear down and performed a roll giving us a good view of the landing gear. He then retracts the gear and gets to the business of showing the capabilities of the jet and his flying skills. Here he is turning the jet into a high rate climb and experiencing some serious G-forces. The vapor cloud on top of the wing is due to the very low pressure on that side of the wing. Look closely and you can see the afterburner flame out the exhaust. Stay in touch! Doug White

The true stars of these shows (in my opinion anyway!) are the military aircraft and their amazing crews (ground and in-air). The F/A-18 is an amazing aircraft and I would never want to be on the enemy side of this beast. It is flown by the Navy/Marines and obviously carrier-capable. It is 32,000 lbs of pure mean attached to 34,000 lbs of thrust capable of Mach 1.6. They have to keep speeds below Mach 1.0 but these guys pushed it as close as they dared! Keeping this plane in the view of the camera at those speeds can be a challenge but I was fortunate to get a lot of quality shots. I share two photos per message due to size limits from some on my distribution list. I'll try to keep the shots coming and may violate my "1 message a day" self-imposed rule. These two airmen are casually moving their jet down the taxiway with hardly a care in the world as they prepare to give us a show. I'm sure they turn all-business once that canopy is closed. The subsequent take-off is q...

The air show essentially opens with the REMAX skydive team dropping in with two of the members unfurling the Texas and American flags. The National Anthem played as the member with the US flag came to ground (ground crew caught the flag so it did not hit the ground). The bright sun combined with spotty clouds in the sky made for nice photos! Stay in touch! Doug White

The air show started with a couple of demonstrations by local Houston teams. Given these pilots are likely flying on their own dime, they gave some nice performances. It may be of interest that many of these pilots were introduced as former military and/or commercial pilots. This photo is of 7 planes demonstrating formation flying. Sure, they are not as close together as the big military jets but they still gave a great show. The second team is a father/son combination. Again, a solid demonstration of excellent flying skills. The next round of photos get into the big-kid toys! Stay in touch! Doug White