Aviation Week 2025 Photo Contest Winning Entries

An aircraft from the U.S. Air Force F-22 Demonstration Team creates its own clouds at the Pacific Airshow in Huntington Beach, California.

A Boeing AH-64 Apache flies during the display at the Royal International Air Tattoo 2025 at RAF Fairford, England.

The Aviation Photocrew arranged this air-to-air photo mission that captured the full rotor disk of the Czech search-and-rescue PZL Sokol helicopter near Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Sgt. 1st Class Rafael Torres of the U.S. Army Golden Knights leaps into action high above Cleveland as the Trojan Phlyers’ T-28s streak past to kick off the 2025 Cleveland National Air Show.

A cleaner works in the new, near-empty Siem Reap-Angkor Airport in Cambodia. The airport, opened in late 2023 to replace the old Siem Reap Airport, is designed to handle nearly 200 daily flights, but fewer than 20 departures occur each day.

A Boeing 737 MAX 10 prepares for testing at sunrise in Roswell, New Mexico.

Erickson Aero Tanker’s McDonnell Douglas MD-87 drops Phos-Chek over Mandeville Canyon Road, Los Angeles, during the Palisades Fire in January. Photographing in the canyon was difficult, with one narrow road in and out, and houses, trees and mountains on both sides. Because I was so close to where the aircraft was dropping, I decided to use my Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, which enabled me to get part of the house. This was also very difficult to shoot because I could not see the aircraft coming until it was right on top of me.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 payload fairing, booster stage and thruster gases are visible inside the flow of exhaust as the second stage ascends on its way to insert 26 satellites into orbit. The launch of Starlink 15-9 from Vandenberg SFB was photographed from Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, destined for the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point, roars into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. A perfectly timed and positioned camera captured the rocket’s ascent, dramatically silhouetted against the Sun.

SpaceX’s Starship went transonic on Aug. 26 during its 10th integrated flight test from Starbase, Texas. The vehicle is 394 ft. tall, the height of a 40-story skyscraper. The cloud enveloping the rocket is a condensation phenomenon in which the shock waves compress ambient humid air, rapidly cooling it below its dew point to form a visible vapor cone. Flight 10, which fulfilled all its primary objectives, including testing a system to deploy future Starlink satellites, put the program back on track after a string of setbacks this year.

The Martin Aircraft Co. Philippine Mars flying boat took off in a bittersweet moment from Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island, Canada, on Feb. 9. With a Coulson Aviation flight crew from past and present firefighting programs, the aircraft was ferried to Lake Pleasant, Arizona. The Philippine Mars was disassembled and transported to the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona, arriving by road on May 16. The World War II-era aircraft will be permanently displayed there after reassembly. The takeoff was shot from the boat Big Greenie.

Gambit Aviation’s Pitts Model 12 takes off from the Aurora Municipal Airport in Illinois.

Around midnight at the Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo in Lakeland, Florida, a Fouga CM.170 Magister was illuminated by five continuous LED lights to create this look in one exposure.

A U-2 Dragon Lady makes its final evening approach to Runway 33 at Beale AFB in Northern California as a storm looms in the background.

This 7-hr. long-exposure image of a 1946 Cessna 120 on the ramp at Charleston Executive Airport, South Carolina, showcases star trails in the night sky.

An aviator enjoys the view of the night airshow from atop a De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2025.