Pic(k) of the week 46: THE OLDEST FLYING JET - Planes of Fame, Chino, CA
Planes of Fame in Chino (CA), is one of my favorite Aviation museums in the US. It is not your typical museum where aircraft are kept somewhere in a dark dusty hangar. Of the 160 aircraft the collection holds, 40 are in flying condition of which most, are regularly flown. Click here for more.
Their latest airworthy one, is a 1948 Gloster Meteor T7, which is officially the worlds oldest flying jet aircraft. She first served 16 years in the Royal Air Force to later become a maintenance ground instruction airframe and eventually a gate guard at RAF Woodval en RAF Woodford. In 1993, she was bought by a private individual in the UK and after a 16 year restoration, flew again for the first time in 2011.
The late Marty Tibbit's World Heritage Air Museum in the US, acquired her in 2017 and had great plans for this Meteor. When Marty tragically lost his life in a Venom crash in 2018, the museum driving force was gone and the Meteor was left in outdoor storage. Luckily another private individual picked her up, to eventually donate her to Planes of Fame in Chino where she arrived in the summer of 2020.
This years Planes of Fame airshow was unfortunately cancelled, but I still paid them a visit, with the main purpose of shooting the Meteor. I was pleasantly surprised to see it parked at the front of one of the hangars, with the open door providing great morning light.
While there were some distractions in the background, I wanted to only show the vintage jet. This was achieved with the new masking tool in Lightroom Classic.
Image details:
- Fujifilm X-T3 with XF70-300 lens
- 1/100s, f9.0, ISO 500, 70mm focal length
- Lightroom Classic to develop the RAW file
- Lightroom Classic masking to burn in the background
- DxO ColorEfex pro 4 for optimal contrast and detail
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