10 Amazing Aircraft Photos Edit

Aircraft photos are fascinating in that they’re a fusion of power, aggression, innovation and beauty. They are the vehicles through which anyone can travel virtually anywhere. Planes have started, fought and finished world wars; they’ve brought families together and torn them apart.

These insanely beautiful aircraft photos exemplify the perfection that occurs when a talented photographer is in the right place at exactly the right time. These put my blurry, have-to-be-Photoshopped digital camera images to shame. Here are the captions for the gallery’s superb photos:

1. C-17 Globemaster III, having just released a series of flares over the Atlantic Ocean
2. Departing Boeing 757-23A (R/W 26L) four minutes after sunrise.
3. Two Soviet MiG-29 aircraft en route to an air show are intercepted by F-15 Eagle aircraft.
4. A F-16C refuels from a KC-135 Stratotanker, as another F-16 stands by during Operation Desert Storm
5. Shot of a EK/Atlas Air 747, being “chased” by EK B777-200
Photo is actually taken from the cockpit of another EK B777!
6. North American P-51D Mustang
7. B737-800’s Line up at Mumbai (Bombay, India)
8. Admiring the Noctilucent clouds from Boeing 767 Flightdeck, which sit at an altitude of around 50 mi up (mesosphere). Noctilucent clouds are not fully understood as a meteorological phenomenon. Clouds generally are not able to reach such high altitudes with such thin air pressures.
9. US Navy F-14D Tomcat Refueling
10. The Space Shuttle Atlantis atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) returns to the Kennedy Space Center after a 10 month refurbishment.