doing the maths...
 

Professor

Sorry, but i don't agree with your maths.

Assuming you got correct the length of the DHL A300 and the JAL 777 (54.1m and 73.9m), measuring the piccie gives about 7.1cm for the DHL and about
9.2cm for the JAL, so the respective scales are 1:762 and 1: 803 (approximately), a difference of about 94.7%. At 15000 feet this is a distance of about 800feet. Mind you, it's not easy to measure the JAL from the pic so there is an error introduced already...

Hippy.

Don't be to harsh on the Prof. I think you will find he is talking slant distance. So your 60,000' is roughly 10 miles, minus a bit for the altitude that he points out, is not available.:)

M.

Funny how you all keep on reading though.

Gives me a great idea for a new reality TV show though.

"Journo-Pilot Swap"

For one week, pilots and journalists swap jobs - the pilots have to run a national newspaper and maintain a readership of 600,000, the journos have to fly planes. Who will win, those who have to meet deadlines and maintain interest, or those who have to press the "autopilot on" button?

Given some people on here, I expect "The Daily Dull" would be an appropriate name for the newspaper.

:E

aegean
Save your maths.

A telephoto lens will compress the apparent distance between 2 objects and give the impression they are much closer. It's a well known feature of those type of lenses.

Not only does this result in dramatic photos like this one, but can be used to produce 'trick' photos, like the one I saw a few years ago of an RAF Policewoman indicating to a scorpion tank to stop, and it apparently screeching to a halt an inch from her foot. In reality, it was 20 feet behind her.

The effect is well known in photography, but mentioning that of course, ruins a good story.