First Finalist Aussiewannabe

Air America - 1969

Air America was an American passenger and cargo airline covertly owned and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1950 to 1976.  It supplied and supported covert operations in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.  It's slogan was "Anything, Anywhere, Anytime, Professionally".  This was not an exaggeration, as Air America aircraft, including the de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou and Fairchild C-123 Provider, flew many types of cargo to countries such as the Republic of Vietnam, the Kingdom of Laos, and Cambodia.  It also on occasion flew top-secret missions into Burma and the People's Republic of China.

Flying for Air America was hazardous and the pay was better than for both normal civilian and military aviation.  An Air America pilot could earn as much in a week as another pilot would in a month, and the pay combined with the promise of adventure attracted many pilots.  But the work was dangerous; even without conflict, pilots had to deal with poorly charted mountainous terrain, few radio beacons for navigation, bad weather, and often overloaded planes.

AC from SimV, Scenery is VOZ with Andy Weir's Mesh for Australia

Second Finalist Spitfire Boy

Third Finalist Specter177

...for a glimpse into the future...

Testing the F/A-37.

April 7th, 2027

Three prototype F/A-37 Talons get ready for flight testing at Edwards AFB. The Talon is the newest Advanced Tactical Fighter to come off the Lockheed-Boeing lines, designed to replace the aging F-22 for the Air Force and fill a niche in the Navy left open by the retirement of the F-14 in 2006. Military planners have said that this may be the last manned fighter in the inventory, with the rising use of advanced UCAVs. After the U.S. - EU war, America is now the unquestioned leader in military technology.

September 26th, 1939: THEY ARE SHOOTING AT US!

Fourth Finalist Harold Kip

...for his (now trademarked) meticulous research....




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On September 26, 1939, while on its flight from Stockholm to Amsterdam, German fighters attacked the Mees, one of the 23 DC-3’s, which KLM owned before World War II. The Mees received eighty hits and unfortunately a Swedish passenger was killed in the incident.  However, KLM Captain Jan Moll (who co-piloted the 'Uiver' in the MacRobertson Air Race) managed to escape into the clouds and fly the aircraft safely to Amsterdam Airport; Schiphol.  After this incident KLM painted all its aircraft orange and applied the letters HOLLAND on the fuselage.


The aircraft, a Douglas DC-3-194G (c/n 2142), was delivered for assembly to the NV Nederlandse Vliegtuigenfabriek (Dutch Aircraft Factory Ltd. - later known as Fokker) on July 7th 1939. After assembly it was delivered to the Royal Dutch Airlines, as PH-ASM ‘Mees’ (Titmouse) on July 21st 1939. KLM used the Mees, amongst other routes, between Amsterdam and Stockholm.


The Mees was confiscated by the Luftwaffe on May 16th 1940 and re-registered as NA+LE. As the aircraft wasn’t used it was transferred to Lufthansa service on June 15th 1940, receiving registration D-ATJG. She was destroyed in an allied attack on September 3rd 1944.


While talking to Aussie, the PH-ASR ‘Roek’ repaint for the default FS9 DC-3 came up, which mentioned the above incident in the readme file. But I told Chris that it wasn't the ‘Roek’ that was attacked but the ‘Mees’. Also, the original repaint wasn’t anything like it should be, comparing it to the replica of a similar DC-3, the PH-ALR ‘Reiger’ at the Dutch National Aviation Museum, Aviodrome. The aircraft were not yellow but orange, the font used was more similar to a square-ish ‘Arial’ style font and it was black instead of blue. Also the position of the decals wasn’t like it should be. I decided to repaint the FS9 default DC-3 in the correct colors, adjusted the decals with a font more suitable and labeled it PH-ASM.


To make the shot completely historically accurate I photographed the Mees in front of the 1928 rendition of Schiphol Airport, which has been completely rebuild at the Aviodrome.


BTW: I've posted an edit of one of the shots from this series in the Edited Forums



Thanks to Aussie for all the hours of researching, testing the repaint and discussing the Mees with me. This really is a joint effort!