Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/05/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 10:21 AM 5/6/96 +0200, you wrote: >The "F-4 bailout over the Mojave Desert"? Sorry, but I don't understand what you're talking about - although I'd like to. Could you please give some details? PMFJI, but I remember that story. A pro. photographer was using an SL(2?)Mot with a 90 Summicron to photograph air-to-air between to Phantom F4 jets. They did the same move Tom Cruise did in "Top Gun" when he gave a Mig pilot the bird and took a Polaroid that opened the movie. Upside down above the lower plane to get closeup of the pilot. Anyway, the top plane with the photographer lost power and the rudder cut into the body of the plane below. They bailed out, but the pilot of the other plane was killed. The camera, at an altitude of 5 miles was ripped out of his hands as he bailed out and fell to the desert below. A year later, while some soldiers were doing maneuvers, one of them started digging a foxhole and found the Leica. It had a roll of slide film inside, still good. He had it processed and saw the air-to-air photos. But he couldn't locate the photographer. So he sent it to Leica to see if it could be repaired. The back was a bit warped, and some minor things were broken. The lens had a dent in the front, but was intact. The motor was scratched. The estimate to fix it was $1,200. He didn't want to pay for the fix, and Leica did a search of the serial number and found the owner. The donated it to the Leica Museum to demonstrated the ruggedness of Leicas. ========================== Eric Welch Grants Pass Daily Courier