Name these planes

[rtr]

Living near the Air Force Academy means lots of neat planes fly over. The big jet was for a funeral this week i think, the other two sets were practicing flyovers for tomorrows football game I think. So what are they?

If any of you photographers want to give me some tips on how I can get better photos, or post process these better I'd like that as I'm not very happy with the results. These were shot with a Nikon D80 and a 18-200mm Nikkor lens.

[dirtypool40]

C-17, T-38, and I think they call the new one the T-2, it's a new-er turbo primary for the navy.

[eerw]

little prop plane looks like the T6A

the transport I think is a C17

little jet is a T38

Edited November 16, 2007 by eerw

[Miranda]

the transport, I don't know

the prop Item, don't know, looks like sorta like a few different planes.

the t-38, how does one tell from f-20?

miranda

[herky]

eerw is right on the IDs, that must be a new generation T-6, doesn't look anything like the WWII version. I think the C17 is a very good shot. Flying aircraft are difficult to shoot from the ground.

[eerw]

current use and role designations..

air space over the academy is restricted..so pretty much you only see military in that airspace or approach..

[John Heiter]

F-20's have a single large tail pipe where T-38's have two nozzles. Very similar and hard to tell apart from this angle but I'm pretty sure these are 38's. My dad was a 38 IP for a number of years so I'm pretty familiar w/ them from all the photos etc. around the house.

[SA Friday]

Chris, Stew is correct on all three accounts.

[Heavy Metal Only]

eerw is right on the IDs, that must be a new generation T-6, doesn't look anything like the WWII version. I think the C17 is a very good shot. Flying aircraft are difficult to shoot from the ground.

Yeah you have to leade them by lik 5 or 6 football fields, depending on how fast they fly.

[stingerjg]

the first one is a C-17.

like this one

[ChuckS]

Hi there,

The first one is the C-17 Globemaster III. That puppy has been paying for my shooting the last 7 years

http://boeing.com/companyoffices/gallery/i.../c17photos.html

The second is the T-38

http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/t-38/

(How do you know if it is a F-20? If it is flying, it is NOT an F-20. There is only one left and it is in a museum)

I still think the T-38 is one of the slickest looking a/c around...

The third is T-6A JPATS Texan II / Harvard II. That aircraft is the new primary trainer for the Air Firce and Navy. It is a Beechcraft/Raytheon build of an aircraft based on the Pilatus PC-9 airframe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilatus_PC-9

http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/texan/

Edited November 17, 2007 by ChuckS

[Skywalker]

Northrop T38 Talon: it's a twin-seater supersonic advanced trainer, which later on gave birth to F5 Freedom Fighter.

F20 Tigershark was a late attempt to enhance the F5 to compete for a single-engine, low cost fighter whose destiny has been doomed by the enormous success of F-16.

Not sure about the last ones, turboprop trainers, but it looks like it could be a derivative of the Swiss Pilatus PC9, the one that won the JPATS bid for a basic-advanced trainer for USAF. I could be wrong on the Pilatus model, not sure if it was PC9, PC11 or any newer model.

Edited November 17, 2007 by Skywalker

[EricW]

The factory test flight for the PC-9 used to be (hopefully still is) to crank it up at the tiedown, release the brakes and fly straight up the side of the Alps.

[rtr]

Couple more very cool ones, a B1 on Saturday and a B2 today.

[eerw]

when did the B2 go over..

stuck inside again..

[ChuckS]

The factory test flight for the PC-9 used to be (hopefully still is) to crank it up at the tiedown, release the brakes and fly straight up the side of the Alps.

The Nomex Lederhosen was a sight....

[rtr]

when did the B2 go over..

The B2 flew over the academy a little after 11, he was circling town for a bit before that. There were also a couple Chinooks and a couple Hueys flying around too. I'm thinking the Academy must be having formations/marching going on.

[Chills1994]

If it is on a Saturday, it's for the home football games.

Expect that the fly-bys will dwindle down to nothing for the spring semester, since there's no football.

Parades? Yeah, maybe every now and then there will be fly-bys at the parades.

The fly-bys will pick back up again come Dead Week in May and then culminate with the Thunderbirds doing a demo at graduation which is always the first Wednesday after Memorial Day.

Every now and then there will be random fly-bys as kind of a morale booster there, but they are random and unannounced.

[rtr]

So why today (monday) would there be a B2, two hueys, two chinooks in the morning. Then a C5 at 4pm?

[ChuckS]

So why today (monday) would there be a B2, two hueys, two chinooks in the morning. Then a C5 at 4pm?

With a C-5 having < 50% mission availability, it was probably "on time"

[revchuck]

So why today (monday) would there be a B2, two hueys, two chinooks in the morning. Then a C5 at 4pm?

With a C-5 having < 50% mission availability, it was probably "on time"

An Air Force maintainer once told me that if there six C5s at an airbase, and four of them were on jacks, that meant that there were only four sets of jacks.

[Chills1994]

I could ask on another forum and get back to you on that.

[Bwana Six-Gun]

Couple more very cool ones, a B1 on Saturday and a B2 today.

Great shots! Reminds me of those days long ago when I was a Fire Support Officer and could call in all those A-7's, Cobras and other cool stuff.

[kurtm]

I can name those planes easy! Air Force, Air Force, and Air Force. and none of them sling air to mud so to the ANGLICO they don't exist! KURTM

[Chills1994]

It was Commandant's Challenge weekend at the Zoo. That's why they had so many fly-bys.

What exactly Commandant's Challenge weekend includes, I have no idea.

Supposedly, they were going to get some V-22 Osprey's in there but supposedly one went up in flames recently so they grounded the whole fleet until the investigation is completed.