Ultra rare sighting

[Victor Archer]

I'm always looking up at the sky, looking at contrails hoping that I might see something interesting. Well, I was in my backyard and saw an interesting trail coming from out over the ocean (not a commercial route for sure) and I happened to get a look at a very rare and unique aircraft. It is a WB-57 used by NASA, there are only two of these rare birds flying!
I got into the habit of putting on a big lens and having my 20D already to shoot just in case something interesting happens to fly bye. Never expected to capture something like this!





I did a little hunting and found this site about the WB-57 operations:

http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/wb57/index.html

[RandyGoss75]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

VERY cool Victor! RG

[MRussell]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

Agreed, that is SERIOUSLY cool. And the plane is a nice U2 copy.

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

Agreed, that is SERIOUSLY cool. And the plane is a nice U2 copy.

Sorry but that dude came first.

[BillRo]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

Looks like the bay doors are open, photographing YOU, Vic, photographing him! Expect black helos soon.

BillRo

[rje71]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

Victor ...

Great pic !!

RJ

[MRussell]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

Sorry but that dude came first.

DOH! I see it was demo-flown in 1951.

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

DOH! I see it was demo-flown in 1951.

It's ok I just wanted to beat the other Matt(bambino elbarto) to it. We talked about this Canberra photo over lunch today. Nice work Vic! At first I thought he said "did you see that B-58 photo Archer took yesterday?" I about spit blue cheese dressing out my nose! The Canberra is pretty damn cool too. It still bugs me a little... Victor how the heck... do ya............... oh never mind. Worked for any government agencies there Victor. The photos you take are just creppy in a way.

[deepsky]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

Dam Victor, how lucky are you! That is a great shot!

[Victor Archer]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

It's ok I just wanted to beat the other Matt(bambino elbarto) to it. We talked about this Canberra photo over lunch today. Nice work Vic! At first I thought he said "did you see that B-58 photo Archer took yesterday?" I about spit blue cheese dressing out my nose! The Canberra is pretty damn cool too. It still bugs me a little... Victor how the heck... do ya............... oh never mind. Worked for any government agencies there Victor. The photos you take are just creppy in a way.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
I always look up at the sky and on the weekends my camera is always ready....

B-58 ... My dad took some sweet shots of them at Edwards, might have to post a couple in the Historic thread...

Oh and Dude "blue cheese dressing out my nose!"

[jarrodeu]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

I about spit blue cheese dressing out my nose!

I hate blue cheese dressing.

Jarrod

[Victor Archer]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

Here's another weekend visitor, Shot this from the front yard



Do you think he was lookin at me???

[jarrodeu]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

Where do you live? The most exciting thing that ever happens near my house is a C-130 flying by over a mile away.

Jarrod

[matt]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

It's ok I just wanted to beat the other Matt(bambino elbarto) to it.

ya, wow, you got to it before i did... this has totally turned my world upside down face...

[Victor Archer]

Re: Ultra rare sighting

This is cool, I found a site that has the complete tracking log for the filght. By looking at the log and at the time the file/image was taken I found this: 04:07PM 3340N/11712W 428 57,000'
So the very first image in the thread is a full frame no crop of a WB-57 at 57,000 feet (10.8 miles up) taken with a 500mm f4 with a 1.4x on a 20D