As Luck Would Have It

[Murray Bloom]

Shot at the Andrews AFB airshow last summer. I've tried this shot several times over the years with remarkably little success.

This is an F4U Corsair and P51-D Mustang making a head-on pass at a closing speed of approximately 700 miles per hour. I panned with the blue Corsair and judged the moment by the sound of their engines.

At the speed the two aircraft were going, had I taken the shot 1/1,000th second earlier or later, the planes would appear to be a foot apart or a foot overlapped. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Nikon D-810; 200-500mm lens at 480mm; 1/640; f18; ISO 500; handheld.

 

[Derrel]

Very cool shot. Good to see you on here again, Murray!

 

[zulu42]

That is a jaw dropper!

 

[BrentC]

Awesomely cool shot!

 

[jcdeboever]

neat

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Right moment, right place!

 

[petrochemist]

Excellent timing! Even machine gunning with today's high frame rate cameras wouldn't get that in the first 20 tries.
In addition just getting them so well matched in height is something that involves a lot of luck.
To top it all your panning with the corsair has to be close to perfect...
Well done indeed!

 

[MSnowy]

Very nice!