this submission for the Dubai Airshow competition of the Hamdan international photography award is focused on some of the "unsung heroes" of commercial aviation.
whilst we focus on aircraft as a whole, teams of engineers work on small parts that can seem inconsequential but are vital to both the aircraft of today and of the future.
shot entirely on black and white film over three days, welcome to Unsung heroes.
in the middle of engine fan cone sits a swirl pattern on the cone. these serve two purposes, first to allow ground crews to know that the engine is turning, and second to provide another line of defence to scare birds away from running engines. the swirl flickers when turning which helps to keep birds away.
modern jet engines are very reliable. much of this reliability comes down to strict maintenance schedules employed by operators. although this rod in the bypass area of the engine looks simple, it is precision engineered to allow for easy access to the engine to aid maintenance, speeding up the time needed to maintain and repair parts.
the landing gear is a complex component with a number of struts and braces helping it to stay locked into position when it is down. up close, it looks like you might find it on the set of Star Wars, but every part has a specific role and a redundancy in place in case it fails.
to get to your destination, pilots need to know how fast they are going and the angle the plane is flying at amongst other parameters.
these pitot tubes and angle of attack sensors provide the information to the pilots through the measurements they take. these are essential to flight.
the epitome of unsung heroes is the coffee maker. designed to be secured when making coffee so that hot water doesn't go flying during turbulence, they provide essential fuel to your crew.