This Month’s Desktop Pictures

Like last month, these photos were taken by Chris Lawson at the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) AirVenture 2005 event held in Oshkosh, WI. He used a Canon Digital Rebel XT and Canon 100-300mm zoom lens. A couple of the nose art photos may have been taken with a Canon 18-55mm lens.

• Goulian—Mike Goulian does a knife-edge fly-by in his CAP 232.
• Gunfighter (P-51D) Profile—perhaps the best-known of all the WWII-era fighters, the North American P-51 (in this case, a D model) was very well represented at Oshkosh.
• Gunfighter (P-51D) Static—another shot of “Gunfighter” on display.
• Gunfighter (P-51D) Taxiing—“Gunfighter” taxiing past show center after the Heritage Flight.
• Hiperbipe—a very nicely finished Hiperbipe kit plane.
• Junkers Ju-52—a common bomber and troop carrier of World War II, the German Ju-52 was easy prey for opposing fighters because of its slow speed.
• Mis-Stress Marie (T-28C)—North American’s T-28 Trojan was introduced just after WWII and was an advanced trainer aircraft for a generation of Navy and Air Force pilots. This one is a C model, now in private hands.
• Navy SNJ—the Navy version of what most people know as a T-6 Texan or Harvard, the SNJ was the US military’s most common advanced trainer during the World War II era.
• Oracle Challenger Engine—Sean Tucker’s Oracle Challenger competition biplane has a monster Lycoming six-cylinder engine. Note the “Flux Capacitor” just ahead of the firewall.
• Oracle Challenger—the other side of Tucker’s Challenger. This aircraft was destroyed in a crash in early April, 2006. Tucker bailed out safely.
• P-38 Shell Ejection—the shell ejection on the left side of the nose of “Glacier Girl,” P-38 Lightning fighter. Though it looks like a close-up, this shot was actually taken from about 30 feet away at full zoom on a Canon Digital Rebel XT with a Canon 100–300mm zoom lens.
• P-40 Warhawk—the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was made famous by Clare Chennault’s “Flying Tigers” in early World War II. It also made an appearance as the main US fighter aircraft during the bombing of Pearl Harbor in the recent Jerry Bruckheimer movie.
• P-47 Thunderbolt—popularly known as the “Jug,” P-47s were amazingly rugged and were produced in great numbers. Only a few are still flying, however.
• P-51 Cloud Dancer—another P-51, also a D model, takes the runway at Oshkosh for a demonstration flight.
• POW-MIA Parachuter—the opening to the airshow each afternoon included parachuters dropped from a DC-3.
• Priscilla (DC-3)—another DC-3.
• PT-17 Stearman Front—another major primary trainer (like the PT-23 and similar planes) was the classic Boeing Stearman Model 75, known as the PT-17 in military usage. Along with the Piper J-3 Cub, it epitomizes 1930s American aviation for most people.
• PT-17 Stearman—another shot of the above Stearman.
• Red Bull Edge 540—Kirby Chambliss’s Edge 540 doing a bit of aerobatics (sorry, I forgot the maneuver he was doing) at Oshkosh.
• Red Stearman—a Stearman in red paint with a closely cowled engine, probably an upgrade from the original’s 220-hp Continental W-670 radial. (Pratt and Whitney R-985 radials were a popular upgrade for the Stearman and are used on the aircraft of the Red Baron Squadron.)
• Scat VI (P-51D)—another P-51D.
• Senior Aero Sport PJ-260—a kit plane design loosely based on the Great Lakes aerobatic biplanes of the 1950s, this Senior Aero Sport PJ-260 is a beautiful piece of work.
• Sentimental Journey (B-17) Nose—a close-up shot of the nose of a B-17. Note the four .50-caliber machine guns in the nose; there’s a reason the B-17 was nicknamed the “Flying Fortress”!
• Sentimental Journey Nose Art—nose art from the B-17 “Sentimental Journey.”
• Stinson—not actually a Stinson.
• Supermarine Spitfire—Britain’s classic World War II fighter, the Supermarine Spitfire, on static display at Oshkosh.
• T-28C Nose—the nose on another T-28C.
• T-6 Texan—a T-6 Texan, similar to the Navy SNJ mentioned earlier.
• USA Flag Parachuter—another parachuter in the airshow-opening drop.
• Warbird—if anyone knows what this is, give me a holler.
• Zorro’s Mistress (T-28D)—a T-28D.
• Zorro’s Mistress Nose Art—nose art from the above.

Previous Months’ Desktop Pictures

Pictures from previous months are listed in the desktop pictures archives.

Downloading All the Pictures at Once

iCab and Interarchy can download an entire set of desktop pictures at once. Use the “Web ‣ Download Entire Site” command in the File menu, giving it the URL to the pictures page above. In iCab, use the Download command to download “Get all files in same path.”

Contributing Your Own Desktop Pictures

If you have a picture, whether a small series or just one fabulous or funny shot, feel free to send it to editor@atpm.com and we’ll consider publishing it in next month’s issue. Have a regular print but no scanner? Don’t worry. E-mail us, and we tell you where to send it so we can scan it for you. Note that we cannot return the original print, so send us a copy.

Placing Desktop Pictures