VR Drive 360° on your back, in the air!
In 1982, Emil Schulthess, in cooperation with the Swiss Air Force, published the legendary “Swiss Panorama” book - 360° panoramic shots with a Seitz camera from a helicopter, achieving world fame. Today, 31 years later, Dominik Baumann takes the topic of “360° in the air” to a whole new level.
click on the image to go to the virtual sightseeing flight
In cooperation with the PC-7 TEAM of the Swiss Air Force, Dominik Baumann has created spectacular spherical (180x360°) VR panoramas - at 450 km/h in formation, with a 3m distance between the aircraft and several Gs load.
Dominik, how did you come up with this sensational idea?
In our multimedia team at “Blick”, we are always looking for current topics of our time that can be illustrated interactively with spherical panoramic images in an impressive way. For example, we have already photographed a heart operation at Zurich Children's Hospital from the surgeon's perspective in 180x360°. We also documented the cockpit of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the world premiere of the new “La Ferrari” from a height of 6m at the Geneva Motor Show. We are one of the world's leading current media outlets that use spherical VR technology in the news sector.
What was the journalistic idea?
A good two years ago I had the opportunity to create VR panoramic images of an F/A-18 fighter jet taking off from Meiringen. This was a great project, but I thought to myself... how can I visually enhance this attractive topic? During a conversation with Air Force officials, the idea spontaneously came up to capture these all-round images from the perspective of a pilot from the Swiss Air Force PC-7 TEAM. This team will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year and this year is invited to the Züri-Fäscht for a flight demonstration in front of an audience of millions. A spontaneous idea quickly became reality and I was soon sitting in the cockpit of a
PC-7.
What was it like working with the Air Force and what were the biggest challenges?
The collaboration was excellent! From the beginning we were all aware that this task was a very big challenge - on the one hand in terms of flight technology and on the other hand in terms of photography. In terms of flight technology, there was a requirement from the start that the VR recordings had to take place as part of normal training flights. From a photographic perspective, a project like this has never been realized before - the photographic equipment had to be specially adapted and made suitable for flight.
First, I flew with the commander of the PC-7 TEAM on individual training flights to find out how this rather complex task could be solved. For example, it became clear how high from the ground we had to fly so that the images could be stitched together in the software. I also quickly realized that I couldn't operate the small release button on the VR Drive with the fireproof gloves on. Seitz built me a special remote release for this purpose. In “Speed Mode” the Roundshot VR Drive is very fast with a rotation time of 6 seconds, but in an aerial maneuver every second counts. It was therefore necessary to test how best to distribute the eight images in the right recording sequence. All camera technical settings - for example distance adjustment on the lens and shutter speed - had to be done in advance on the ground and - very important - I was not allowed to drop anything during the flight.
Soon the technical implementation was solved and the big day of shooting in formation flight was about to begin. Will the VR Drive trigger the camera reliably? Are the exposure and sharpness correct? Am I getting the timing right with the Matterhorn and the city of Zurich? Will I and the equipment withstand the multiple G loads? There was no turning back and no alternative date – now or never. Back on the ground - the photos were in the can, but I only really felt relieved when I assembled the images into a panorama on the computer and everything was perfect.
Did you ever get sick?
The first flight actually took some getting used to. Commander “Höffi” (Colonel Werner Hoffmann) flew with me several training sessions, on the back, through various loops and other acrobatic elements. This was necessary to prepare and test myself and the equipment for use in the team. We passed!
Dominik, we warmly congratulate you on this fantastic project!
Dominik Baumann is a multimedia photographer and journalist at "Blick", a large Swiss daily newspaper.
dominik.baumann(at)ringier.ch
Copyright of the images by Ringier AG
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