[NomNamNom]

hahaha That is great! I'm glad you found it helpful! Sometimes I feel there is no point in writing down so many details and findings as they end up long texts which may not interest none but a few specialised photographers! But I said, what the heck I will write down my settings/findings etc and maybe someday it will be helpful for another person like me, which is enough reason! After all I got in this community after researching about mirror lenses on Pentax cameras and found a few other members that helped me! That's what PF is about I think!

PS: The F-22 silhouette against those clouds with AB is a wonderful image!

Thanks! It's thanks to folks like yourself that this community thrives and becomes such a valuable resource.

NASA T-38 at the Ames Research Center in Sunnyvale, CA, in 1979. Taken with a Pentax ME and 50mm/ƒ1.7 lens on Kodacolor II film.

I wish I lived closer to NASA so that I could see their inventory. Several weeks ago, their 747SP "Sophia" had made a pit stop at my airport. Wished I could of seen her.


One more pic for now...

[redpit]

Thanks! It's thanks to folks like yourself that this community thrives and becomes such a valuable resource.



I wish I lived closer to NASA so that I could see their inventory. Several weeks ago, their 747SP "Sophia" had made a pit stop at my airport. Wished I could of seen her.


One more pic for now...

Thank you kindly! I really appreciate your words!

This pic is wonderful! Great framing and it has that mood from a real WW2 scene somewhere in England!

[Racer X 69]

Conjoined mustangs!!!
There’s a bit of work for aero-surgeons. Do they have such a thing?

The North American F-82 Twin Mustang.

North American F-82 Twin Mustang - Wikipedia

[subsea]

Originally posted by subsea Quote:


NASA T-38 at the Ames Research Center in Sunnyvale, CA, in 1979. Taken with a Pentax ME and 50mm/ƒ1.7 lens on Kodacolor II film.

I wish I lived closer to NASA so that I could see their inventory. Several weeks ago, their 747SP "Sophia" had made a pit stop at my airport. Wished I could of seen her.

Back when these pictures were taken, I worked for Grumman Aerospace Corp. as an aerodynamics engineer, and I was out at NASA Ames running some wind tunnel tests of the Grumman X-29 Forward Swept Wing Aircraft. I had the run of the airfield with my camera and was lucky enough to be able to get shots of most of the NASA aircraft around at the time, as well as pictures at an airshow that took place there while I was there. It was a great experience being able to get close and personal with all of the aircraft! I'll post some more of the shots from that trip as I go through them.

[noelcmn]

[Racer X 69]

Back when these pictures were taken, I worked for Grumman Aerospace Corp. as an aerodynamics engineer, and I was out at NASA Ames running some wind tunnel tests of the Grumman X-29 Forward Swept Wing Aircraft. I had the run of the airfield with my camera and was lucky enough to be able to get shots of most of the NASA aircraft around at the time, as well as pictures at an airshow that took place there while I was there. It was a great experience being able to get close and personal with all of the aircraft! I'll post some more of the shots from that trip as I go through them.

You won’t get an opportunity like that these days. Everything changed after 9/11.

When I drove big trucks my first over the road run was some ground support equipment for Boeing, to Edwards AFB. They were doing some flight testing there, not sure what airplane though.

I was pretty excited, as one of my uncles was in the Air Force back in the 1960’s, and my dad and I drove out there from San Pedro several times. Just pull up to the gate, tell them who we were and who we were there to see, an in we went.

Fast forward to 2009.

I pull up to the gate, which looks much different today. Barbed wire, guards with machine guns, bomb sniffing dogs . . . .

So I get through the security check, someone from Boeing meets me an escorts me to the apron where they were set up. after they unload my wagon, I ask if they would take a picture of me standing by my truck, with some airplanes in the background.

The guy went nuts, exclaiming, “Are you &$@!*%# crazy? You take a camera out here and those guards with machine guns will have you on the ground with a boot on the back of your head!”

I guess they don’t want anyone to see something secret.

[subsea]

You won’t get an opportunity like that these days. Everything changed after 9/11.

When I drove big trucks my first over the road run was some ground support equipment for Boeing, to Edwards AFB. They were doing some flight testing there, not sure what airplane though.

I was pretty excited, as one of my uncles was in the Air Force back in the 1960’s, and my dad and I drove out there from San Pedro several times. Just pull up to the gate, tell them who we were and who we were there to see, an in we went.

Fast forward to 2009.

I pull up to the gate, which looks much different today. Barbed wire, guards with machine guns, bomb sniffing dogs . . . .

So I get through the security check, someone from Boeing meets me an escorts me to the apron where they were set up. after they unload my wagon, I ask if they would take a picture of me standing by my truck, with some airplanes in the background.

The guy went nuts, exclaiming, “Are you &$@!*%# crazy? You take a camera out here and those guards with machine guns will have you on the ground with a boot on the back of your head!”

I guess they don’t want anyone to see something secret.

Yeah, tell me about it. Even then, if there was anything classified going on, you couldn't get close to it unless you had the proper clearances and were actually working on it. The vast majority of things being worked on by NASA were unclassified so there were very few problems with bringing cameras into the facility. Classified testing was generally handled by the Air Force, with the majority of that taking place at either the Air Force base in Tullahoma, TN, or at Langley Air Force Base in Langley, VA. The wind tunnel complex in Tullahoma used the entire power output of the Tennessee Valley Authority, so we had to test at night and needed special permission to run the wind tunnels past 6AM. I'd tell you some stories about Langley, but then I'd have to shoot you!

Here's a picture of the X-29 wind tunnel model installed in the 11 ft x 11 ft transonic wind tunnel at NASA Ames.

Attached Images

 

[noelcmn]

[K-Three]

Yeah, tell me about it. Even then, if there was anything classified going on, you couldn't get close to it unless you had the proper clearances and were actually working on it. The vast majority of things being worked on by NASA were unclassified so there were very few problems with bringing cameras into the facility. Classified testing was generally handled by the Air Force, with the majority of that taking place at either the Air Force base in Tullahoma, TN, or at Langley Air Force Base in Langley, VA. The wind tunnel complex in Tullahoma used the entire power output of the Tennessee Valley Authority, so we had to test at night and needed special permission to run the wind tunnels past 6AM. I'd tell you some stories about Langley, but then I'd have to shoot you!

I worked as an official NASA photographer in the late '80s to mid '90s at NASA Dryden (now Armstrong) We frequently went out onto the runway and lake bed, shared with the Air Force. We (NASA Photographers) were under instructions to not photograph or even point the cameras at anything but the NASA aircraft we were supposed to be covering that day. I did work on the X-29, it was a joint AF, NASA, DARPA program, and if I remember right it had some restrictions on what we covered and released on it.
We all had secret clearances, but rarely needed them.
The work had it's moments, but after the 1,000th employee of the quarter Grip & Grin, or interminable waits out on the lake bed for something to take off or land, the gloss wore off.

[subsea]

I worked as an official NASA photographer in the late '80s to mid '90s at NASA Dryden (now Armstrong) We frequently went out onto the runway and lake bed, shared with the Air Force. We (NASA Photographers) were under instructions to not photograph or even point the cameras at anything but the NASA aircraft we were supposed to be covering that day. I did work on the X-29, it was a joint AF, NASA, DARPA program, and if I remember right it had some restrictions on what we covered and released on it.
We all had secret clearances, but rarely needed them.
The work had it's moments, but after the 1,000th employee of the quarter Grip & Grin, or interminable waits out on the lake bed for something to take off or land, the gloss wore off.

The X-29 program was a little bizarre in that pictures of the aircraft were unclassified, drawings of the design were unclassified, and the majority of the aerodynamic data was unclassified. However, as soon as you put them together in the same document, it became classified. We always scratched our heads over that!

[subsea]

The NASA U-2 being prepped for takeoff on an environmental mission in 1979.

[subsea]

Beginning to taxi out for takeoff.

[subsea]

Another one of the U-2 taxiing out for takeoff.

[subsea]

And another of the NASA U-2 shortly after takeoff.

[NomNamNom]

Back when these pictures were taken, I worked for Grumman Aerospace Corp. as an aerodynamics engineer, and I was out at NASA Ames running some wind tunnel tests of the Grumman X-29 Forward Swept Wing Aircraft. I had the run of the airfield with my camera and was lucky enough to be able to get shots of most of the NASA aircraft around at the time, as well as pictures at an airshow that took place there while I was there. It was a great experience being able to get close and personal with all of the aircraft! I'll post some more of the shots from that trip as I go through them.

The X-29 is a cool design. I remember watching a video about how beneficial it's forward swept design was a week or two ago. Out of curiosity, how closely did you work with A&P techs?