I went (with the Missus at my side) to Richmond International Airport looking to get a shot of an airliner. Now that travel is ramping back up (at least it is here in the US) I figured there would be some good shots. What I got was multiple opportunities to shoot a C-130 Hercules!
This "Herky Bird" is from Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 53 (VR-53), the "Capital Express", based at Naval Air Facility Washington. NAF Washington is part of the Joint Base Andrews complex in Washington, DC.
The plane was "shooting touch-and-goes" - making a standard approach, landing but not stopping, and taking off again. It is easier for them to fly 90 miles south to practice at Richmond than it would be to deal with the super-crowded airspace in DC.
After I got the picture of the Hercules on final approach, we drove around the airport's perimeter to the other end of Runway 16 to catch it on its next take-off. The timing and my location gave me a great shot of it with the landing gear fully retracted and a nice cloud above it.
@allie912 Bomber Mafia is on my 'to read' list. I'm familiar with the basic concept of how the strategic bombing advocates - Arnold, Eaker, Spaatz, Kenney, LeMay, et al - were pretty rabid about their idea. Gladwell's interpretation of events should be interesting.
May 27th, 2021
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