“Night Run” TBM-3E Avenger HD Acrylic Print 30 x 20 in

“Night Run” , 2017 – Photographer: Jessica Voruda Archival Pigment Print on Metallic Photo Paper Face-Mounted to Optically Clear Acrylic 30 x 20 in / 76 x 51 cm A Grumman TBM-3E Avenger sits on a taxiway in Huntington, Indiana, beneath a sky full of stars, the Big Dipper hanging just above the horizon. The Wright R-2600-20 Twin Cyclone is running, its fourteen cylinders turning the propeller into a translucent disc, and the red and green navigation lights trace soft arcs through the long exposure as the wings unfold from their stowed position. This is the Sto-Wing in motion: the patented Grumman folding mechanism that allowed the Avenger’s enormous wings to rotate ninety degrees and fold flat against the fuselage, packing dozens of them onto the deck of an aircraft carrier. The system is hydraulically driven, which means the engine must be running for the wings to move, a technical requirement that becomes the entire premise of this photograph. The Avenger was designed as a torpedo bomber and remains the heaviest single-engine aircraft of the Second World War. Powered by the 1,900-horsepower Wright R-2600-20, it entered service in 1942 and became the most widely used torpedo bomber of the war, credited with sinking numerous surface ships including the Japanese super-battleships Yamato and Musashi. The aircraft pictured is N4171A, originally restored by Grumman test pilot Corwin “Corky” Meyer and now owned by warbird collector Tim Savage of Huntington, Indiana. It is painted in the markings of VC-13, and the number 25 on the fuselage is Corky Meyer’s own Grumman test pilot number. Photographing it under the stars, with the giant engine and propeller turning ten feet away in the dark, was quite something.