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 Lans Stout, once an employee on the A-12 program at General Dynamics in Fort Worth, has been an aerial photographer for seventeen years. Now as a freelancer, most of his flights are related to covering stories for magazines. While his primary ride has been the F-16, he has also flown in the A-7, A-4, F-4, and in the F-15. Stout is well known for his beautifully strobe-lit ground photos of pilots and maintenance personnel. “I’m no fighter pilot, but I enjoy photographing these aircraft where they live, in the three-dimensional blue. I’m a station wagon guy, along for the ride, but I toss in a few suggestions for good pictures from the back seat.
“The dissimilar aircraft combat missions I have flown are pure sensory overloads. The F-16 can turn with the whiplash spin of a car on ice. In high-g pulls, the g-suit waist bladder explodes with compressed air in an attempt to cut me in half. The greatest feeling that never goes away is my first takeoff roll in afterburner. The F-16 pops off the ground and I’m sitting on a telephone pole with unlimited vision, pointing through the skies with the power of Zeus. The afterburner goes off, we bank, and slide beside the lead F-16 in close formation.”
One of Stout’s most memorable stories comes from an experience at Navy water survival school. “You know you’re one of the guys when fighter pilots goof on you. One test involved a seventy-five-yard swim in full flight gear. I was an ocean lifeguard for seven years, so I think, ‘No sweat.’ Some Marines give me some friendly advice: ‘Blow up your g-suit a little and float through the swim.’ I do so and give them an insider’s nod as I leap into the pool. I’m immediately struggling — suspended in the water upside down since only my legs are buoyed by the air in the g-suit. I struggle out of the pool as the Marines laugh and give me a big thumbs-up.”
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