A friend of mine sent me this photo of a very lucky escape. The account that came with it is as follows: " The tail strike occurred during at a 1990 airshow in Harrison, Arkansas. Kelly, who was a technician for the FAA and somewhat of a camera buff, was tracking this guy flying a MiG-15 with his camera. The pilot had just completed a loop and misjudged his pull-out. Everyone considering themselves as potential victims, took-off running in all directions. But Kelly had a non-threatening position with strong motivation to take the picture. So just as the MiG scraped the ground, Kelly captured this rare image. Had it been circulated at the time, this clear, once in a lifetime photograph might have earned an award. Oh, by the way, the guy made a wide circle, lowered his landing gear, touched down then taxied in showing very minor damage." Most of which was sustained by his flight suit... I have to say I do wonder if the photo is a fake, but I suppose its not impossible that its genuine.
Seems to be blowing plenty of dust in a straight run and the shadow seems good. Maybe it is real until it is proven false.
There seems to be plenty of debate about this picture in cyberspace, and it certainly looks convincing. However, I reckon it's photoshop for the simple reason that no such accident is recorded on the US Air Accident database. Aviation Query Results Page Looking at the back (engine area) one has to assume that there is not enough power coming out for the aircraft to touch and go, and thus crashed. If this did indeed occur in the US then there should be a report.
But if the damage really was very minor - which it must have been if he was able to fly a circuit and land - maybe he just kept it quiet? How many FAA officials were likely to be hanging around at Harrison, Arkansas? Clearly he touched grass and dirt rather than tarmac or concrete.
Thats a point - perhaps we're looking at someone who forgot to lower their undercarriage on landing and realised just in time. Or raised it too soon on take-off.
Looks photoshop to me. At that speed with flaps down he was approximately a fifth of a second from being a farmer. What it does look like is that someone has taken a photo of a museum exhibit, then photoshopped out the undercarriage and whatnot and popped it into a blurred background.
A good job whichever way it turns out. I was watching a show on the history channel about the British propoganda workers during WW2. A female artist drew Hitler holding his visible p**is during one of his rallies. I will post it and a very funny story concerning my 15 year old daughter and one of her school projects one day this week.
