Give us a wave! Photographer climbs 700ft Welsh mountain to snap perfectly-timed picture of F15 airman staring into camera as his plane soars past
- Rob Maclennan, 50, took more than 400 frames of three F15 Strike Eagle United States Air Force jets
- He hiked up a 700ft mountain in Machynlleth, Wales, and waited for the jets to pass at up to 1875mph
- His camera quick-fire snapped the jets and in one photo the co-pilot looks directly up at the lens
It was gone in a split-second in a flash of grey and a thunderous roar.
But the moment an airman in the F15 fighter jet stared directly into a photographer’s lens was captured in an incredible shot.
After a hike up a 700ft mountain in Machynlleth, Wales, Rob Maclennan, 50, took photographed three fighter jets as they raced past.
The United States Air Force was performing drills with F15 Strike Eagle jets that can reach speeds of up to 1,875mph and have previously been used in air strikes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya.
The weapons systems officer, who sits behind the pilot and controls weapons held in the jet, looked directly back up at the camera as it took the shot
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As Rob stood on the top of the mountain he pointed his camera towards the ground beneath where the jets were heading and set up his camera to snap them as they passed.
Most of the frames came back blurry but one photograph stood out.
The weapons systems officer, who sits behind the pilot and controls the jet’s bombs and missiles, looked directly back up at the camera as the shot was taken.
The United States Air Force was performing drills with F15 Strike Eagle jets that can reach speeds of up to 1875mph and have previously been used in air strikes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya
Rob said: ‘I climbed up the mountain, plotted up there and waited – the jet came by at 500ft below me during a fly-by.
‘They were United States Airforce. The guy you can see looking up in the back is known as a Weapon Systems Officer.
‘The area is a series of valleys, all you can see below is the odd road – it took me about 400 shots before I could snap it.
‘They have to contact air traffic control before to let them know what they’re going to do – it’s all one way – there’s just a few of them.
‘They’ve been doing it since the sixties – back then there were hundreds.
‘There’s less demand now with the use of stealth planes.’
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