During July 1994 Dan Breed and the sailplane crew worked with MacGillivray Freeman Films to film the Explorer for the IMAX movie “STORMCHASERS”. As part of this effort a special boom was designed and constructed for attachment to the nose of Explorer so that they could obtain unique footage of the sailplane in flight as it penetrated clouds. A photograph of Explorer with this boom and IMAX cameras attached to the front of the boom is shown in Fig. 36. Bruce Miller was the pilot for both test flights of this unwieldy boom and for flights in cumulus congestus clouds to obtain the necessary footage for the film. Miller had been the primary pilot of Explorer since 1983.
Fig. 36 A photograph of Explorer with the special boom built for filming for the IMAX movie “Stormchasers”. Scientific instruments shown on Explorer ahead of the cockpit are the reverse flow temperature probe on the right and the King liquid water content sensor on the left. The modified PMS Forward Scattering Spectrometer probe is under the right wing; and the modified PMS 2D gray-scale particle imaging probe with coupled induction rings is under the left wing. The pilot was Bruce Miller. The photograph was taken at Boulder Airport with the Flatirons in the background on the left.
One of the spectacular photographs taken with the IMAX camera is shown in Fig. 37. The photo was taken while Explorer was in a steep bank with a towering cumulus beside Explorer and above a bank of clouds in the background.
Fig. 37. A photograph of Explorer in a 45 degree bank taken by the IMAX camera on the boom attached to the nose of Explorer.