35mm · Film photography · Photography

Meteor

A couple of days back I posted about the Shooting Star (or the Lockheed T-33A, as it was formally known), today I have a picture of a Meteor. A Gloster Meteor NF-14.

The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter, and the only one to see service during World War II. Several versions were produced, and the NF-14 was designed as a night-fighter variant to supercede the DeHavilland Mosquito. The NF-14 entered service in 1954 but was already being replaced by more advanced aircraft just a couple of years later.

Gloster Meteor NF.14

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°

Taken 7 April 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Shooting Star

Of all the aircraft at Newark Air Museum, it was the Lockheed T-33A that got the most attention from my camera. Something about those zebra stripes on its nose did it for me a guess.

Although originally put in service as a jet fighter, the Shooting Star (or T-Bird as it was otherwise known) spent much of it’s operational life serving as a training aircraft. Amazingly, despite first going into service in the late 1940s, the Bolivian airforce only retired theirs from service in 2017!

It’s a pretty nice looking machine.

Lockheed T-33A
Stripes
On the nose
Lockheed T-33A

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°

Taken 7 April 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Hastings

Here’s the nose of the Handley Page Hastings at Newark Air Museum. It’s a quite colourful mix of silver, orange and red, but these also transfer quite nicely to black and white tones. The paintwork and detail on the fuselage also stand out quite nicely thanks to the light I had.

Nose

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°

Taken 7 April 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Shckleton nose

Here’s a close-up of the Avro Shackleton that appeared in the wider shot I published yesterday. My dad did some of his National Service stationed in Northern Ireland back in the 60s and told me that he once got a lift back over to to the mainland in an RAF Shackleton.

Avro Shackleton

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°

Taken 7 April 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

All in a row

Three of the largest aircraft at Newark Air Museum, all in a row. From right to left: A Handley Page Hastings, an Avro Shackleton, and at far left, and Avro Vulcan. There will be further pictures of each of these impressive aeroplanes to come shortly.

Depending on when you visit, it’s possible to go onboard each of the aircraft. I’ve only been aboard the Shackleton (on a previous visit) and, despite the large size, it’s incredibly cramped inside. I managed to work my way all the way down the length of the plane to the nose, but it involved a few places where I had to climb over bulkeads and similar to get there.

Aircraft

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°

Taken 7 April 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Lightning

I always found the English Electric Lightning to be a noteworthy aircraft. It’s shape felt distinctive, with it’s nose cone and dual exhausts. It was renowned for its climb rate.

But the reason I have an affinity for it is that I remember seeing (and, more to the point, hearing) them flying low over the North Sea just offshore from Mablethorpe when I was a child. Just north of Mablethorpe there is an RAF bombing range at Donna Nook (it’s also famous for it’s seal population) and I expect that these impressive sightings were part of pilot training exercises.

Sometimes there would be F4 Phantoms and, most impressive of all, Avro Vulcans flying over the sea parallel to the shore carrying out similar exercises.

English Electric Lightning

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°

Taken 7 April 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

A pair of MIGs

I’ve posted about my visit to Newark Air Museum last month here on the blog already, but those posts were mostly about the problems I’d encountered with my large format camera. Thankfully, I also had a second camera with me on the day – my trusty Canon Sure Shot Supreme – and it managed to do a sterling job making pictures, some of which I’ll be posting here in the coming days.

Aircraft – in a similar fashion to cars, trains, and steam engines – are not something that I have an inherent interest in. I mean, they are interesting, and certainly in many cases, impressive, but my primary reason for seeking them out is that they make great subjects for photographs. So a trip to an air museum is not that dissimilar to a trip to a classic car show, or a steam rally in that regard – primarily for making pictures, with some secondary general interest thrown in for good measure.

Today I have a couple of photographs of MIG aircraft – a 23ML and a 27K – both of which went under the NATO designation of “Flogger”.

MIG-23ML
MIG-27K

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°

Taken 7 April 2023.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Keep off the track

Having seen trains move through busy stations, and felt their thunderous mass rumbling pass through the platforms, I have to say that the “Keep off the track” warning sign seems somewhat superfluous. But that’s me. I’ve also witnessed people doing all manner of foolhardy things, so maybe the sign serves as a warning to those who might have forgotten themselves momentarily. I doubt, however, it will have much effect on those who believe themselves to be above such warnings

Keep off the track

Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9 mins 30 secs @ 20°

Taken 25 March 2023.