General Aviation: Vintage Aircraft — 2017 Photo Contest

The last airworthy Lisunov Li-2 (operated by the Goldtimer Foundation) was pictured during a sightseeing run out of its base at Budaors Airfield, Hungary. The lucky passengers could enjoy a bird's-eye view of downtown Budapest, the Parliament building and Danube River.

A P-51 Mustang is one of several of the type seen at 2017's Sun & Fun International Fly-In and Exposition in Lakeland, Florida.

A Dutch-based Fouga Magister F-GLHF is captured by camera amid the clouds over the Flevopolder region near its home base in Lelystad, Netherlands.

Cubs taxi into their assigned parking area after their mass arrival at the EAA Oshkosh AirVenture 2017, held every year in Wisconsin.

HA-LIX, the only surviving Lisunov Li-2, was pictured on its short final approach to Budaors Airfield's Runway 27R, startling some unsuspecting motorists in the process.

A Dutch-based Fouga Magister F-GLHF breaks away just behind the camera-carrying Cessna over the edge of Zwartewater Lake close to its home base near Lelystad, Netherlands.

This Lockheed P2V was on the ramp at the Missoula International Airport, Montana, as the sun was setting and a storm approaching. The combination of a dramatic sunset and aircraft created an excellent black-and-white photo opportunity. The vintage fuel truck adds to the evocative mood.

This shot of a Boeing B-17 Madras Maiden was taken over the North Carolina countryside on Sept. 17, 2017.

This de Havilland Dragon Rapide is part of the impressive fleet of historic aircraft at the Spanish Fundacion Infante de Orleans air museum. Its livery commemorates the 90th anniversary of Spain's Iberian Airlines. It is seen flying over central Spain. The Basilica of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen is in the background.

Tim Savage's Classic Grumman/General Motors TBM-3E Avenger unfolds its wings under the night sky of Northeast Indiana.

View from the nose turret of a North American B-25 Mitchell bomber flying over the Savannah River in Georgia during a flight on April 29, 2017.

Two Stearman biplanes are seen after "smoking" Stearman Field, Benton, Kansas.

On April 25, 2017, I was able to shoot a 1930 Standard in Ohio. It is one of eight Standards currently flying. The owner and pilot, Dewey Davenport, was flying over his private airstrip in Xenia, Ohio. 

The world's only flying Boeing P-26A Peashooter and the world's only flying Northrop N9M Flying Wing are photographed in flight together for the first time. Remarkably, these two aircraft were designed only about 10 years apart. Both aircraft belong to the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California. 

Painted in the original Iberian Airlines livery to commemorate the Spanish airline's 90th anniversary, Spain's Fundacion Infante de Orleans air museum's de Havilland Dragon Rapide EC-AAY displays its beauty during a break at the end of a photo session.

This shot of a 1947 Boeing B-50 was taken at the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, the day before I ran the U.S. Air Force Half Marathon.

A closeup of a vintage fuselage.

A Douglas DC-3 with an Ariane 5 rocket in the background at the Paris Air Show illustrate more than six decades of technological progress and human endeavor—ranging from 1936-96.

This was the fourth flight of the Boeing B-29 "Doc" after restoration was completed by the group Doc's Friends in the summer of 2016. The saga of Doc's rescue from a desert bombing range and subsequent return to flight status spans three decades.