Curious on the backstory behind the photos? This is the place. You'll find not only write ups on local outings, but also reviews of major events I’ve attended.
Burning The Midnight Oil
Burning the midnight oil! The men and women of both the USMC and USN stay busy day and night, as seen by the tremendous amount of action at this small southeastern Californian airport
When I visited Naval Air Facility El Centro earlier this year, I noticed an impressive number of USMC and USN helicopters passing by El Centro, instead of stopping at the nearby Imperial County Airport, which is roughly a 15-minute drive away. On one of the few days I was in the area, I decided to head down there and see what nightfall would bring. No more than five minutes after I arrived, three massive CH-53E Sea Stallions from MCAS Miramar arrived, and the festivities began.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have my tripod with me on this trip, so I found the flattest surface I could—the roof of my rental Dodge Ram. While this actually worked out fairly well, the immense CH-53s shook the entire ground even while parked and at idle power, remaining running as the crew chiefs hot-refueled their machine. This sometimes caused some of the night exposures to be unusable, as the shake would result in blurry photos. Not to be deterred, I kept adjusting my settings to account for this and managed to get satisfying results.
As I snapped away, I had to be conscious of my limited photo opportunities with these incredible machines. As quickly as they arrived, they departed into the darkness, with only faint slime lights visible and the thunderous sound fading into silence. Minutes later, I’d hear the noise pick up again as more helicopters approached—Vipers, Venoms, Seahawks, Ospreys, and even more Super Stallions.
It was an incredible amount of nonstop action, and to think this is a regular occurrence! Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how busy the men and women in uniform stay—training day and night—while many of us are already in bed, fast asleep. It definitely reminded me of that and only deepened my appreciation!
January 30, 2025 - Imperial County Airport (Imperial, California)
The Boom XB-1 Goes Supersonic
My travels took me to Mojave, California, to witness the inaugural supersonic flight of the Boom XB-1 demonstrator, hailed as "the world’s first independently developed supersonic jet." The
Last month, I made a last-minute trip to Mojave, California, to witness the inaugural supersonic flight of the Boom XB-1 demonstrator, hailed as "the world’s first independently developed supersonic jet." The Boom team has been actively conducting flight tests on this sleek demonstrator as they work toward their ultimate goal of developing the Overture, a supersonic airliner.
During its twelfth flight, the aircraft reached a speed of Mach 1.122 at an altitude of 35,250 feet, with an ATAC Mirage F1 chasing it and a Northrop T-38 Talon capturing photos. In the brief 30-minute flight, the XB-1 achieved supersonic flight three times—all without generating an audible sonic boom that reached the ground after refining its sonic boom models and improving algorithms for predicting Mach cutoff conditions.
You may notice that during the return flight, the XB-1 exhibits a pronounced nose-up attitude on approach compared to most other aircraft which makes it impossible to see over the nose during the landing phase. The pilot, Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg, relies on a augmented reality vision system: Two nose-mounted cameras, digitally augmented with attitude and flight path indications, feed a high resolution pilot display to allow runway visibility.
On February 10, the XB-1 performed its final test flight and will eventually be put on display in the Boom Technology headquarters lobby in Denver, Colorado.
January 28, 2025 - Mojave Air & Space Port/Rutan Field (Mojave, California)
