This is a Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-21 PFM, shot on the flight deck of the Intrepid Sea Air & Space Museum. According to the information posted at the museum, this MiG was flown in 56 air forces, more than any other fighter, and involved in more conflicts than any other fighter in history.
This specific example is from the Polish Air Force. It flew with the Tenth Fighter Interceptor Regiment that was charged with the defense of Warsaw. NATO runs competitions called Tiger Meets to promote solidarity between the air forces of member nations, and this aircraft is painted to commemorate the Polish MiG-21s that participated in those competitions.
This image has been in my archives since early summer. I spent a morning on the Intrepid with my two daughters, and most of my shots feature them. I did not spend much time shooting for the blog, and used my Olympus Pen E-PL1 to shoot the HDR brackets instead of lugging my D700 around. I did not love the results, but was inspired to take another go at processing the image after seeing some vintage aircraft images at the blogs of my friends Jacques (fotofreq) and Daryl “Butch” Butcher (the Butch link goes to only one of a substantial series of aircraft images he recently posted). I figured there must be something I could do to give the image a bit more impact and basically copied Jacques’s use of a real tilt-shift lens by applying a mock tilt-shift effect in post. Apart from that I merely fixed the sky that came out chromatically hideous after the HDR process, and also added a bit of vignette. I still do not love the image but I am certainly happy to present it here now.
PS: try to identify the source of the title of the post — it shouldn’t be too hard.
UPDATE: My buddy Jim notes that he did not know Poland had an air force. That’s not unusual, and inspires me to add a note regarding the Kosciuszko Squadron. This was a group of 8,500 Polish air men who defended England in the Battle of Britain. After Poland was invaded and overrun by both the Nazis and the Communists, many Polish politicians and service members escaped, and most ended up in England.
Eventually, more than 20,000 Polish air men, sailors, and soldiers fought with the Allies. Of course, the Soviet Union, who invaded Poland to start the war, eventually joined the Allies after the Nazis double-crossed them (gee, who saw that coming).
When the Battle of Britain began, the Polish air men were more experienced, better trained and had better tactics than the rest of the Royal Air Force, even though they had poorer airplanes. The Kosciuszko Squadron shot down 14 Luftwaffe planes on the first day of the Blitz. Nine of them became aces, and for a while they were the toast of London. The No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron, one of 16 Polish Fighter Squadrons incorporated into the Royal Air Force during World War II, was the highest scoring RAF Squadron during the Battle of Britain.
The motto of the Kosciuszko Squadron was “For Your Freedom and Ours,” but the sentiment was not returned in fact. When the war ended, the western allies abandoned Poland to the Soviet Union. Whether you believe England and the US did so out of necessity or not, it’s the truth and it was dishonorable. The post war Labour government in England forced 200,000 Polish refugees, who had been welcome as long as they were supporting Britain’s war effort, to return to Poland to face slavery and oppression under Russian Communist rule. On June 8, 1946 when the Labour government conducted its Victory Parade, the Kosciuszko Squadron that helped to save Britain was prohibited from participating so as not to embarrass Stalin.
There is an outstanding book reviewed here called “A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron, The Forgotten Heroes of World War II”, by Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson. Chances are it’s more than most people want to know about this topic, but I can recommend it to people who love Poland, hate Nazis, hate Communists, or who love melancholy bittersweet endings to a story of heroism.
FURTHER UPDATE: One of the tactics I remember invented by one of the Polish pilots was that, when the Luftwaffe attacked, he would not go to intercept them. Instead, he would head to a spot off the English coast and wait for the German planes when they were heading back to the continent. By then most had tired pilots and nearly empty fuel tanks. You couldn’t have more than one or two defensive planes do this, as the main goal was to prevent attack raids before they occurred, but to have one guy do it was brilliant. He had an enormous kill rate, and it was demoralizing for the German pilots to know they could not rest after their attack runs were completed.
Heath O'Fee
30 Sep 2010As soon as I looked at this shot I quietly exclaimed to myself, “Man, this is awesome!” Really great shot, Mark!
Jim Denham
30 Sep 2010Didn’t realize Poland had an air force! I like the shot Mark and am really liking the tilt shift effect! Don’t have a clue on the title source.
Pingback: Tweets that mention On what wings dare he aspire? » Too Much Glass -- Topsy.com
DARYL (BUTCH) BUTCHER
30 Sep 2010Thanks for the mention. I promise that sometime today I will break my timeline and upload one of my MIG pictures. They are already on the Chino Air Show on flickr. I got some pretty nice air shots as well. Next year I will tote the 400mm monster and try to shoot another couple of thousand exposures in a day. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Butch
Jacques
30 Sep 2010That’s an awesome shot you’ve got there, and some fab processing. Great work on getting that tilt/shift look with software.
Jim Denham
30 Sep 2010Thanks for the added info Mark. Talk about unsung heroes! I’ve pretty much established in my mind that nothing good ever comes from war, even though some times there is no avoiding it. This story just supports that notion. Great stuff, sir, and thanks for the history lesson!
DARYL (BUTCH) BUTCHER
30 Sep 2010Well, shucks. I had to upload an image of a parked MIG 15 as well as one of it flying with an F-86.
Aircraft pictures dogfight. 🙂
Butch
mark
30 Sep 2010Thanks for the comments everyone. BTW, the titles is a line from William Blake’s poem, “Tyger Tyger.”
Pingback: Katyn Memorial - Jersey City - Too Much Glass » Too Much Glass