Editor's Picks From 2018 Photo Contest

Commercial Editor’s Picks

Brian Losito 
Lachine, Quebec

An Air Canada Boeing 737-8 banks over the Vancouver Island Ranges mountains.

Commercial Editor’s Picks

Leonid Faerberg 
Moscow

A Boeing 737-7 takes off behind a CargoLogicAir Boeing 747-8F at the Farnborough Airshow.

Commercial Editor’s Picks

Benoit Denet 
Liege, Belgium

A Lufthansa Airbus A340-600 casts its shadow on a road while approaching Los Angeles International Airport.

Commercial Editor’s Picks

Scott Stephens 
Meridian, Mississippi

Shrouded in dense fog, a Bombardier CRJ200 flight crew calls it a night at Meridian’s Key Field.

Space Editor’s Picks

Ed Whitman
Laurel, Maryland

The Parker Solar Probe begins space environment testing in the 40-ft.-tall thermal vacuum chamber, the Space Environment Simulator, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 

Space Editor’s Picks

Ben Cooper
Orlando, Florida

A two-nozzle RD-180 engine and five Aerojet solid rocket boosters propel the most powerful version of United Launch Alliance Atlas 5's rocket into space with AFSPC-11 for the US Air Force.

Space: Editor's Picks

John Kraus
Indian Harbour Beach, Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite from Cape Canaveral on April 18. The photo was taken with a sound-activated camera.

Space Editor’s Picks

Bill Ingalls
Arlington, Virginia

Soyuz MS-06 lands with NASA astronauts Joseph Acaba and Mark Vande Hei and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin near Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Feb. 28. The three were returning after 168 days in space as crewmembers of Expeditions 53 and 54 onboard the International Space Station.

Space Editor’s Picks

Ed Whitman 
Laurel, Maryland

The Parker Solar Probe is encapsulated within its 62.7-ft.-tall fairing on July 16, in preparation for the move from Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to
Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 37.

Space Editor’s Picks

Michael Seeley 
Melbourne, Florida

Three cores = three streaks. The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying the Parker Solar Probe was captured with a remote camera set to a 25-sec. exposure and placed at the end of the front pond at Space Launch Complex 37.

Space Editor’s Picks

Stephane Corvaja,  
Paris

Soyuz MS-09 rises from Baikonur, Kazakstan, on June 6 carrying crew members Sergey Prokopyev, Alexander Gerst and Serena M. Aunon-Chancellor to the International Space Station.

Defense Editor’s Picks

Aldo Wicki 
Kerzers, Switzerland

A pair of Dewoitine D.26 fighters and a Boeing F/A-18C of the Swiss Air Force’s No. 18 Sqdn. perform during the unit’s 90th anniversary celebration.

Defense Editor’s Picks

Peter Lewis 
Brutten, Switzerland

A Swiss Air Force Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter from Transport Sqdn. 7 brakes while landing on an improvised strip in a central Switzerland cornfield. The squadron is mostly staffed with militia pilots who also fly airliners as their day jobs.

Defense Editor’s Picks

Ricardo von Puttkammer  
New York

Two members of the U.S. Army “Golden Knights” Parachute Team exit their Fokker C-31A aircraft at 12,500 ft. over Dayton, Ohio, during the Vectren Dayton Air Show. 

Defense Editor’s Picks

Avichai Socher 
Givat Shmuel, Israel

Landing in the Negev desert, and left alone for hours, the photographer manages to capture the circling stars above an Israeli Air Force Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk.

Defense Editor’s Picks

Mark Holtzman 
Sherman Oaks, California

A Northrop Grumman B-2 stealth bomber flies over the stadium as the national anthem concludes at the 104th Rose Bowl game on Jan. 1 in Pasadena, California.

General Editor’s Picks

Joshua Calhoun 
Satellite Beach, Florida

At the Chicago Air and Water Show on Aug. 18, Katrina Hong looks toward Susan Dacy’s Super Stearman making a low approach pass. The photograph was taken with an IPhone X in black and white high dynamic range mode. 

General Editor’s Picks

Mitch Bowers 
Englewood, Colorado

The Metropolitan State University of Denver Precision Flight Team conducts an air-to-air photo mission east of Denver.

General Editor’s Picks

Brianna Clements 
Tucson, Arizona

In the final minutes before the 100th anniversary celebration of the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, the photograph of a Boeing B-17 captured a single moment of calm after a hectic day of setup.

Eric Freibrun 
Northbrook, Illinois

The hub of a two-blade prop on a Russian Yakovlev Yak-52 was photographed at the Northern Illinois Airshow in Waukegan.

Michael Otis 
Prides Crossing, Massachusetts

GEICO Skytypers perform in their North American SNJ-2s at the Rhode Island Air Show.

General Editor’s Picks

Kurt Gearhart 
Chandler, Arizona

The photographer took this selfie with a GoPro while taking a friend’s wife for a flight, a Christmas present from her husband.

General Editor’s Picks

Andres Magai 
Majadahonda, Spain

An Air Tractor AT-802 firefighting aircraft waits for the call to action as lightning strikes on the horizon in the Spanish province of Cuenca.