What an incredible project. I did so many shoots for Canadian Airlines.
When they bought a brand new Boeing 747 400 Series, they asked me to shoot the brochure. So we lit the airplane on the taxiway in the Vancouver airport with 6 - 20K HMI lights and a generator truck for power. Next we shot their in-flight service for Business Class on the second or upper deck of the 747. We had a door open with only a safety wire across and we had a 20K on a cherry picker to simulate sunlight coming into the cabin. Models, flight attendants, food, the whole show. What I learned that day was that jet fuel is heavy and drops to the hangar floor. So all our seaway power cable connections had to be up on apple boxes so the connection could not spark.
Which brings me to this WIng Walker. The cost of shooting this shot in 8 x 10, all in one shot, with models on scaffolding outside of an airplane and models inside with enough strobe to light them was going to be was $93,000.00 in 1989. I suggested we assemble in in computer and I shot the plane at the airport in the sun and shot everyone else including simulating the windows with a photographic print with mylar for glass, in my studio.
Great project. They were billboards across the Gardiner Expressway on Toronto’s waterfront.