Castle Air Museum

Merry Christmas! I'm taking a week or two away from blogging for family time, but in the meantime, enjoy these photos from the Castle Air Museum. These first two are a Consolidated B-24M Liberator, from the World War II era.

 
Next up is the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, this one flown in World War II.

Here are some photos of the massive Convair RB-36H Peacemaker, the only surviving RB-36. These carried America's nuclear weapons in the 1950s. You can see the MK-17 thermonuclear bomb next to it in the first shot (obviously just a casing).

 Here are several smaller aircraft lined up.

 The famous Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.

Here's an Avro Vulcan B.Mk 2. These flew with the British Royal Air Force from 1952 until the 1980s.

Finally, here's a straight-on photo of the Boeing WB-50 Superfortress, the last American propeller-driven bomber. These aircraft flew from the late 1940s to the 1964.

Our World Tuesday

Propeller

This Skywatch Friday photo was taken at the Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California, which I visited when we were in the area. There's lots more photos to come from here soon...

Thunderbirds (3)

Skywatch Friday

Thunderbirds (2)

Skywatch Friday

Thunderbirds (1)

Every year the Air Force Thunderbirds put on a display for the Air Force Academy graduation, and it's easy to see anywhere in town. We took a little time off from the office to watch this year's display, and here's one of my shots.

Skywatch Friday

Plane!

I loved this sky while waiting for our airplane to leave at Denver International Airport.

Skywatch Friday

TWA Museum, Kansas City

Another museum in the Kansas City area is the TWA Museum; we took my father there as he's interested in aviation.

It was interesting with lots of mementos from the airline, including these old log books.

It's worth a visit if you're in the area and enjoy seeing these types of things.

Our World Tuesday

B-52 at Night

Here are some more night photos from the United States Air Force Academy this weekend, showing scenes more commonly photographed in daylight - this time it's the B-52 bomber.

It's a real B-52 that flew many combat missions, now mounted for an impressive display.

I liked the moon behind the plane in that last shot. It was also the highest ISO I used, 12,800.

Skywatch Friday

Air Force One

Arguably the biggest attraction at the Ronald Reagan Library & Museum is Air Force One. Obviously it's not the current one, but it was in service from 1973 to 2001 and carried Presidents Nixon, Carter, Ford, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush.

While you can walk through it (a fascinating experience where the history is palpable), photos are not allowed within, so all I have are these exterior shots.

There's also a Marine One, the helicopter that flies the President.

Our World Tuesday

A-10A

For Skywatch Friday, here's a Fairchild-Republic A-10A on display at the United States Air Force Academy.

Thunderbirds

The Air Force Academy graduation ceremony usually concludes with a show by the famous Air Force Thunderbirds, and that's this week's Skywatch Friday post.

They're famous for their incredible aerobatic moves.

And of course, they fly in very tight formations.

Don't miss them if they perform near you!

Airplanes & Engines

For Our World Tuesday this week, here are the last of the photos from the Wings Over the Rockies museum, here's an airplane!

I took lots of photos of assorted engine-related things.

They even had an X-Wing fighter, smuggled here from the distant future!

And that's the Wings Over the Rockies museum, a good way to spend an afternoon.

Airplane Closeups (and a Bomb)

From our visit to the Wings Over the Rockies museum last year, here are some closeups of airplane parts. Here's the light at the end of a wing.

This one speaks for itself.

This looked like something that would measure windspeed.

And I have no idea about this last one, it was on top of a wing.

And finally, here's an atomic bomb (presumably disarmed since it's in a museum).

Okay, that last shot isn't of the bomb (it was behind an engine), but I thought it was appropriate, and it's my entry for Tina's PicStory theme of "Creative." And it's also part of Our World Tuesday.

Airplanes

I love airplanes, so it's surprising I haven't taken many photos of them. For Our World Tuesday, as well as for Tina's PicStory theme of "A" this week, here are a couple of photos from the Wings Over The Rockies museum in Denver. First is a B2 bomber, mounted outside the museum. My ultrawide lens makes it appear much smaller than it is - this is huge!

And here's an overview of some of the planes inside the museum, which basically consists of one large hanger.

One of the unusual things about this museum is that you walk right in among the planes, so you can look right into the engines, bomb bays, and get some great closeups. I've got several more shots from here that I want to post.

Air Force Skies

We went to an Air Force Academy football game on Saturday and I captured this image for Skywatch Friday during the flyover. If you look carefully you can see the flames coming out of the engines!

I've got more photos from the game that I'll post another time.

Night Plane

Here's a real Skywatch photo from back in August, literally looking at nothing but the sky. I was trying to catch shooting stars during one of the meteor showers. I didn't have any luck, but I did get this shot with some clouds and a plane on the left, seen by its flashing lights moving down the photo.

This was a 13-second exposure. Visit the Skywatch Friday meme for lots of different sky shots.

To answer a couple of recent questions:

1. I get my lightning photos with long exposures. I've learned to judge just how long based on how bright the lightning is, so I use the "bulb" setting where one click of the remote starts the exposure and another stops it, but 15 - 30 seconds is typical at night.

2. The previous wildfire photos were not from a prescribed burn, but an out-of-control wildfire. Wildfires in winter here are uncommon, as the weather is usually too cold and there's often snow on the ground, but we've had some small ones locally this winter.

3. Palmer Park is right in the middle of Colorado Springs.

4. I've not heard of people with the great Christmas light displays getting money for charity. Most people take them down within two weeks after Christmas.

5. Regarding my Yellowstone shots and whether it's near a volcano, the whole park is a supervolcano. The last time it exploded was 640,000 years ago, and we'd better hope it doesn't go off anytime soon, as it would be a disaster of Biblical proportions!

Thanks for all the comments, and I'll try to be more prompt about answering questions.

My World Tuesday - Air Force Academy Graduation & More Thunderbirds

For this Memorial Day, here are some pictures from last week's United States Air Force Academy graduation. My thanks go out to all those who are serving their country, those veterans who have served, and my deepest respect to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. It is because of you that we have our freedoms today. It may seem like a trivial example, but it is because of people like you that we have such a vibrant blogosphere, where we can post without fear of the government knocking at our doors.

The ceremony takes place in the Air Force Academy stadium.

The band strikes up some music.

It starts with the senior cadets (i.e. the ones graduating) marching in straight lines to their seats. This year there were 1,001 graduating cadets.

 Assorted speakers give advice and entertain the crowd. This year's featured speaker was Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was a good speaker.

Finally, the graduates all walk across the stage as their names are announced and get their diplomas. Then it's time for the traditional hat toss.

The hat toss coincides exactly with the first pass of the Thunderbirds over the stadium. The classic photo includes both the hats and the Thunderbirds but you need to be on the stadium floor for that.

Here is one more maneuver from the Thunderbirds display, four pictures from a quick sequence. It's called a hesitation roll, where they start in level flight. They roll 90 degrees (not shown here), hold their positions, 90 degrees more, hold it (upside down), 90 degrees more, hold it, and 90 degrees more back to normal flight. All in formation! For more Thunderbirds pictures look at my post from last Thursday.

For lots of great posts about peoples' worlds, visit the My World Tuesday home page.