The MiG-21 Project

 

Last month my younger son, Drew, and I spent a weekend in Seattle to attend a family-related memorial service.  During the non-family time one afternoon we visited the Museum of Flight south of downtown Seattle, and encountered an unexpected, amazing piece of art.

But first . . .

We took an early nonstop from Albuquerque to SeaTac, and with clear skies, low-angle morning light, and a window seat, I got some nice images of the rugged mountains about 80 miles southeast of Salt Lake City . . .

. . . and a great view of Mt. Ranier (and Mt. St. Helens in the distance) as we descended into the Seattle area:

After brunch at a snazzy, retro diner in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, we drove back down I-5 to the Museum of Flight at the King County Airport, a few miles north of SeaTac.  Drew and I had visited the museum on a previous trip to Seattle -- you can read about that visit here.  On that visit, the Aviation Pavilion, a major section section of the museum housed in a covered open-air structure, was closed.  Fortunately, on this visit it was open, and we spent most of our time there.

Photo from the Museum of Flight website

The Aviation Pavilion houses 19 rare and unique commercial and military aircraft, including the first jet-powered Air Force One (a Boeing 707); the Boeing 727 (complete with a description of the legend of D.B. Cooper); the 737, 747, and the 787 Dreamliner, as well as the only Concorde on the West Coast.

Needless to say, the size and placement of the aircraft, coupled with the pavilion's mix of light and shadows, were not ideal conditions for photography.

Among the military aircraft are a B-29 and a B-17 (the latter the subject of the anti-war poem "The Death of the Ball-Turret Gunner" which you can read here).  You can see the ball-turret on the underside of this B-17, just to the left of the lower propeller blade of the engine in the foreground of this image.  

I was visually fascinated by the cowling and blades of the Rolls-Royce turbofan engines that power the 787.

But tucked away behind the 747 and 787, at the farthest end of the pavilion, was a very unusual aircraft:  a Russian MiG-21 fighter jet completely covered in a riot of colorful patterns.

The patterns are not painted on; they are made of tens of millions of tiny beads covering virtually every square inch of the plane.

The armaments . . .

. . . the wheels . . .

. . . even the inside of the engine exhaust nozzle . . .

. . . are all wrapped with beads!

The decorations are the brainchild of South African artist Ralph Ziman.  The aircraft is the centerpiece of a 5-year, multidisciplinary project transforming a decommissioned, Cold War-era, Soviet-designed MiG-21 jet fighter into a work of art.  

"The aim of the MiG-21 Project," according to Ziman, "is to take the most mass-produced supersonic fighter aircraft and turn it from a machine of war into something that looks beautiful, changing the meaning of it."

In addition to the decorated jet, Ziman and his team created "Afrofuturistic flight suits" with custom regalia made from objets trouvés and repurposed parts of the MiG to complement the beaded jet.  The costumes are described in the exhibit as "whimsical" and "playful," but to me they appeared threatening and dangerous, perhaps due to how they were displayed -- inside plexiglass cases in a very dark room -- or perhaps due to how they conjured contemporary images of ICE stormtroopers.

Notwithstanding all that, the beaded jet became my "teacup" for the trip (IYKYK).  I walked around it more than once, and made over 150 images of the plane.  Here are some of my favorite views:

You can read more about the MiG-21 Project, and see a fascinating video of how the bead coverings were created -- a long and painstaking process -- by clicking here.

Of course, I couldn't leave the museum without taking a picture of our favorite aircraft:  the SR-71, this time poised above the museum floor set up for a large private event.

On the flight back to Albuquerque, I captured another great view of Mt. Ranier (with Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood in the distance); the Cascades of Washington state; a Delta Airlines 757 flying below us above the Great Salt Lake coming in for a landing in Salt Lake City; and the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers in Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah.

View looking SW; Colorado River comes in from the bottom of the image; Green River from right.

Enjoy!