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Assignment Jet Colorama – Air to Air Photoshoot US Navy Blue Angels F-11 Tigers

In the early 1960s this film was made to show the planning that went into the air-to-air photoshoot of the US Navy Blue Angels Grumman F-11 Tigers for a huge billboard that appeared on Kodak’s famed “colorama” in Grand Central Station in New York City.

Aviation photographer Ralph Andersky went to the US Naval Air Station at Key West, Florida to meet up with the Blue Angels team where he planned with the pilots of the Grumman F-11 Tigers, and the Lockheed P-2 Neptune that would be used as the chase plane for the inflight photo shoot. A massive camera was also installed in through the belly of the Neptune for the photoshoot which was pre loaded with 40 feet of negative film for the photoshoot flight.

The Neptune being slower than the F-11 Tigers took off from NAS Key West well in advance of the Tigers, and they met up over the ocean close to Cuba. The Blue Angel Tigers not only fly in formation, they also taxi in formation with a three foot clearance between aircraft wing and canopies. In the air this film presents the actual radio communications between the tech on the Neptune chase plane and the leader of the Tigers to bring the team in closer for their inflight group shot.

The air was quite turbulent on the day of the shoot which made it quite a challenge for the pilots and the photographer. Given the pre focus requirement of the special camera they had to do several group break-ways from the chase plane to get a variety of shots. With the winning shot taken on the last attempt before they F11s had to head back to Key West, the air to air photo mission was a terrific success.

The film then takes us to Kodak’s plant in Rochester, New York where the image was cleaned and evaluated, and then processed into the large mural photo that would be presented on the billboard in Grand Central Station.

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