July 1, 2008 — Finally! The Dayton Air Show: A Photographic Celebration is in stores and we have some book discussions scheduled — one with air show superstar and National Aviation Hall of Fame nominee Sean D. Tucker. Here's where you can find us in the coming weeks:

• Ty Greenlees and Timothy R. Gaffney will discuss our book on Wednesday, July 9, at 5 p.m. in the Vandalia Kroger Store, 780 Northwoods Blvd. (Kroger is selling the book in its stores.)

• Sean will join us on Wednesday, July 16, at 7 p.m. in Books and Company at The Greene, 4453 Walnut St. in Beavercreek. This will come just before the 2008 Vectren Dayton Air Show at Dayton International Airport on July 19-20, and the National Aviation Hall of Fame enshrinement Ceremony on July 19. Sean will fly in the air show and be inducted in the enshrinement ceremony.

•Ty and I will appear again at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 16, at the Dayton Metro Library’s Main Library, 215 E. Third St.

Books are available in Kroger stores, Books and Co., and other local bookstores. It will also be available during the air show at the air show's merchandise booth. If you just can't wait, order it online.

Tags: air shows, Sean D. Tucker, Ty Greenlees, Timothy R. Gaffney

Over the years, Ty Greenlees has become an accomplished air-to-air photographer. It isn't easy, and it isn't for the sqeamish.
For starters, you need as much visibility as possible, with no plexiglass distorting your view of aircraft you're trying to photograph. The ideal shooting platform is an airplane with a big, wide door that can be removed for photo flights. Lucky for Ty, Sean D. Tucker has just such an airplane — a Piper Seneca — and a terrific photo pilot in Brian Norris, his announcer. When Sean is flying at the Vectren Dayton Air Show, he and Brian work with the local news media to arrange air-to-air photo opportunities. Sean always welcomes other air show pilots to fly in formation with him.



Sitting on the floor of the open cabin, strapped in like helicopter door gunners, the photographers have an unrestricted view out the big side door. The picture above is one I snapped of Ty and another photographer in 1999 in the back of Sean's Cherokee Six, which preceded his Seneca.



Here's how the photo plane looked when I flew in the back seat of Mary Dilda's SNJ "Two of Hearts" in a 2004 photo flight.

Air-to-air photography requires careful planning and teamwork — not just to get a good photo, but for safety. Flying in close formation with other airplanes demands training and discipline. Sean works with professional aerobatic pilots who know how to do it safely. Before a photo flight, he gathers everyone for a briefing, and they all walk through the maneuvers they will make during the flight.
The photographer also needs to understand how formation flying works so he understands what the pilots are doing and interact with them to set up his shots. This is a skill I watched Ty develop to a high degree over the years.

Tags: air shows, Ty Greenlees

A page from The Dayton Air Show: A Photographic Celebration


Ty and I have several goals for our upcoming book, The Dayton Air Show: A Photographic Celebration. One is to show readers the connection between the Dayton Air Show and Dayton’s aviation heritage.

In the first chapter, we trace Dayton’s tradition of air shows and aerial exhibitions all the way back to the Wright brothers’ experimental flights on Huffman Prairie, in Greene County, in 1904 and 1905. I admit we were stretching the case, since the flights weren’t public exhibitions, and the only observers were invited guests, local farmers, and the occasional passersby. But it was no stretch to trace it back to 1910, when Wilbur and Orville established the Wright Company’s exhibition team. They flew all over the country, but the Wrights trained them mainly on their Huffman Prairie Flying Field, now an element of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.

Now a leading aviation magazine has made the same connection between the Wright team and air shows, albeit on a national level. The May issue of Air & Space/Smithsonian, the bimonthly magazine of the National Air and Space Museum, carries a feature by Paul Glenshaw, director of the Discovery of Flight Foundation, titled “Ladies and Gentlemen: The Aeroplane!” In it, he describes how the daring — sometimes tragically so — Wright pilots gave many Americans their first glimpse of the new age of flight. (Glenshaw's piece is part of a feature package that includes the magazine's annual air show guide.)

The feature includes a link to another article Glenshaw wrote about the plane the Wright team pilots flew the most, the Wright “B” Flyer. The Dayton Air Show traditionally opens each morning with flybys of a Wright “B” Flyer look-alike, owned and operated by Wright “B” Flyer Inc. It’s more than a one-of-a-kind act: The Wright “B” Flyer look-alike reminds air show spectators that the Wright brothers lived in Dayton, invented the airplane in Dayton, achieved practical flight on Huffman Prairie, and built their airplanes in the Wright Company Factory, which still stands as a part of a Delphi auto parts manufacturing complex.

So, read Glenshaw’s fine story in Air & Space, buy our book when it comes out in June, and come to the air show in July!

Tags: Dayton Air Show Book, Ty Greenlees, Timothy R. Gaffney, Wright Company, Wright "B" Flyer

March 15 update: Parachutes gallery added!

Even a book has only so much space. Ty had to make a lot of tough choices when he selected pictures for our book, Dayton Air Show: A Photographic Celebration. Chad DeBoard, Orange Frazer's graphic designer, had to be even more selective when he made the pages.

The winnowing process left Ty with a pile of great pictures that just didn't fit into the book. So, he did the next best thing: He selected some of his favorites for photo galleries that we're going to put on this website.

First up: military jets.

Speaking of miljets, here we are in the Dayton Daily News company jet at an '80s air show. ... Yeah, right.

Tags: air shows, Ty Greenlees, Dayton Air Show Book

The air show management team scheduled a press conference. It would be held in the Modern Flight Gallery of the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Better yet, Sean D. Tucker, the air show's headline civilian act for 2008, would be there. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so I asked the air show managers if we could announce our book as a part of the press conference — a small part. They agreed. Cool.

But the spirits would be restless.

The Vectren Dayton Air Show press conference took place Tuesday morning (1/29/08), right in front of the museum's new F-22A Raptor exhibit. It made a great backdrop for Air Show General Manager Brenda Kerfoot to announce the Air Force Raptor demo will be coming to the show on the July 19-20 weekend at Dayton International Airport.

Of course, Sean was a big part of the announcement. Not only will Sean fly his Oracle Challenger biplane at this year's show, he will be bringing his new team, the Collaborators Formation Aerobatic Team, with Ben Freelove, Bill Stein, and Sean's son Eric.

That wasn't all. On the same weekend, the National Aviation Hall of Fame will induct Sean into its prestigious ranks of enshrinees. He will join Patty Wagstaff, another living air show legend, who was inducted in 2004. This is personally exciting for me, because I think they are both the best of the best among air show performers. In our chapter on solo air show performers, Sean and Patty have a subchapter.

Sean will be inducted with three others: Retired Air Force Col. Col. Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson, World War II triple ace and experimental test pilot; Herbert D. Kelleher, co-founder, former CEO, and executive chairman of Southwest Airlines, and William A. Moffett, architect of naval military aviation.

Retired Air Force Col. Gerald K. "Robbie" Robinson, hall of fame chairman, got up to speak about this year's enshrinements, which take place at a black-tie gala described as the "Oscars night of aviation." That's when the museum's spirits seemed to get restless. One by one, the poster-size portraits of the enshrines started leaping off their easels, as if trying to fly. Every time Hall of Fame director Ron Kaplan or Air Show director Terry Grevious retrieved one, another would launch itself.

The culprit might have been the the museum's air ventillation system, which even stirred the Wright "B" Flyer hanging nearby, but it was more fun to assume ghosts were at play.

I felt a bit chagrined, though; the spirits didn't seem to think our book poster worth launching.

After the press conference, Ty Greenlees hauled Sean and me back to the Hall of Fame's learning center for group photos.

Tags: Dayton Air Show Book, air shows, Sean D. Tucker, Timothy R. Gaffney, Ty Greenlees