I could spend days on this blog I found recently (FoxtrotAlpha).
One particularly cool item I found was this time-lapse video of Redflag exercises. The music just makes it all work.
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/watch-a-time-lapse-of-the-air-forces-most-intense-comba-1541291395
Well worth going to full screen on this.
Thanks for this. The DVD I mentioned to you a while ago (Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag) has as a nice bonus extra a 22-minute montage of flight sequences accompanied by the movie’s score arranged as a symphonic suite. I like to listen to it playing as a repeating loop, as background music.
@CWO:
Thanks for this. The DVD I mentioned to you a while ago (Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag) has as a nice bonus extra a 22-minute montage of flight sequences accompanied by the movie’s score arranged as a symphonic suite. I like to listen to it playing as a repeating loop, as background music.
Yeah, just being in that cockpit and taking in the unobstructed and ever rotating vista of the earth is amazing. I don’t remember our discussion, but was that video shown in IMAX? I did look it up and it still plays at Wright Patterson. Next time I am down there I plan to see it.
When my family was at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in DC we saw an IMAX presentation on tornadoes, which was quite immersive. I can only imagine how much better Op Red Flag would be as an IMAX show. Massive, wrapping screen, incredible visuals and sound.
I have been quite excited lately because Christopher Nolan’s film INTERSTELLAR is coming out the first week of November. He is a big proponent of IMAX and the theater experience for a film. The subject matter and fact that Nolan filmed a lot of Interstellar in IMAX is making me take the hour drive to the nearest IMAX theater to go see the movie. Cannot wait.
Anyway, as for this video, it is really interesting to watch the rapid pace of takeoffs and especially landings. You can see at the end some of the larger planes touchdown. I believe the fist few are KC-135s, in the air for obvious reasons, and the last one, right before the video ends is actually a B-2. You can just make out the shape and slim profile as it lands and taxis.
Your phrase “just being in that cockpit and taking in the unobstructed and ever rotating vista of the earth is amazing” is a perfect description of the first flight sequence in the IMAX film. It’s shot aboard an F-15, with the camera mounted right in front of the pilot so that you see his face, the seat cushion behind him, and a good view out of the bubble canopy above him. The plane is heading down the runway for a takeoff as the shot opens, and a couple of seconds later the view behind the pilot outside the cockpit shows the ground tilting back and receeding as the fighter takes off and goes into a climb. Then, a few more seconds later, as the landscape gets smaller and smaller, the ground and the horizon line rotate as the plane rolls about 90 degrees. Very nice shot, accompanied by nice music too: not the kind of brassy military music one might expect, but a more quiet, low-key score that makes the F-15 appear light and graceful…almost like a glider rather than a fighter plane. So yes, lots of footage in that film that will please flight enthusiasts.
I don’t remember our discussion, but was that video shown in IMAX? I did look it up and it still plays at Wright Patterson. Next time I am down there I plan to see it.
The main film itself (Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag) is an IMAX film. The DVD of the film includes various bonus features, including the 22-minute montage. I don’t think the montage itself gets shown as an IMAX film, but I could be wrong.
Nice. I am really excited about this now. If every October weekend was not so busy for us, I would take my wife down to Wright-Pat this weekend. However, it will probably take us a month to get down there. We are definitely planning a trip.
We are definitely planning a trip.
Great. Looking forward to hearing what you think of the movie.
