March 9, 2017
A Special Treat on the Dunes
I love photography, but I also love flight. From birds to the Wright Brother’s first flyer, from the SR-71 which my father worked on to the V-22 Osprey that my son flies on. I love flight and airplanes.
And so it was a special treat to see my first B2 over the Mesquite dunes of Death Valley! It made several passes and fortunately I had my 100-400 lens on and was able to get these shots.
It is very impressive but my first thought was: this shouldn’t fly!
There was a companion aircraft that I at first thought was a tanker, but it didn’t look like any tanker that I was familiar with. It looked as though it had a radome on the nose and something odd on the tail.
Does anyone know what this plane is and what it does? I’m guessing that it is measuring emissions to see how stealthy the aircraft is, perhaps after some modifications or new equipment?
I was also lucky enough to see my first V-22 Osprey refueling over Death Valley! My son Caleb is a Crew Chief on this aircraft. I was not lucky enough to photograph it however.
Cole
Shame on you, Cole! Those are COLOR images, no? You broke your own law. You’ve had a serious brain cramp.
Very nice Cole. I too would be thrilled to be so lucky. Having spent 20 yrs in the USN, I can also relate to the pride you obviously feel in the work your son is doing.
Cool that you got to see that, Cole. I don’t know anything about the other aircraft, but you’re right about the B-2 looking like it shouldn’t fly. If it weren’t for fly-by-wire and the onboard computer systems, it would be a short flight!
Hi Cole – We were lucky enough to see this over Death Valley twice last year – once over Badwater and once over the Mesquite Dunes. I found this post that explains these test flights: http://www.air-and-space.com/Death%20Valley%20sighting.htm
On my last hike out to Panamint Dunes I had two F-16s buzz me, with a hard turn right over my position. I love it !
I saw this too, together with Michael Frye and Claudia Welsh, during one of our Death Valley workshops. Which dune were you standing on?
Mesquite Dunes! Quite a treat, eh?