One of the most talked-about exhibits this week at NBAA-BACE is the display from partner companies XBrand and 3 Delta Fox, which are showing three high-tech aerial camera ships. The companies specialize in aerial photography for the TV and movie industries, and for corporate work.
The best-known project undertaken so far is the filming of the "Top Gun: Maverick" movie, and indeed the company was originally formed when discussions of that movie began.
Xbrand is concerned primarily with the operations side, providing the cameras, gimbal systems, and crew, while also working with the producers in shaping the aerial sequences according to the storyboard, as well as detailed planning for the actual shoots. 3 Delta Fox is a production company that creates fully edited and produced movies, primarily for promotional work by clients such as airlines and aircraft manufacturers.
On show in NBAA-BACE’s indoor static display are an Aero L-39 from the Patriots display team, Airbus AStar helicopter, and Embraer Phenom 300. The aircraft were towed at night with police escort to the Las Vegas Convention Center, having flown into Harry Reid International Airport.
Aircraft are hired or borrowed from their owners for camera work and fitted with Xbrand’s gimbal systems. It takes a few hours to reconfigure the platform with cameras, including replacing the nose sections of the fixed-wing types. The L-39 operates under an experimental certificate, but the Phenom gimbal installation is covered by an STC.
The gimbals can mount a variety of cameras depending on the requirements of the job, including high-definition stills cameras, and are operated by the director of photography from the cabin or back seat via an advanced controller with cable connections to the camera.
According to Xbrand's owner and director of photography, Michael FitzMaurice, the workhorse of the fleet is the AStar, which is used for a wide variety of sequences, including air-to-ground and air-to-air. The ability of the helicopter to hover in a designated spot is of great value—combined with detailed mission planning and briefing—for capturing air-to-air sequences.
The Phenom is also widely used, especially for airliner/business jet shoots. It has the ability to carry a second gimbal under the rear fuselage, enabling the capture of a sequence from two angles. Its long range can also be an advantage: for instance, some of the "Top Gun" sequences around the aircraft carrier were filmed some 150 miles out to sea, for which the certified twin-engine Phenom was deemed a much safer option than the experimental single-engine L-39.
However, the L-39—branded XCinejet—is the most capable platform for air-to-air work due to its high performance. For the most part, Xbrand uses composite Shotover gimbals, which are rated for 350 knots and 3 gs, but the L-39 at NBAA-BACE is being shown for the first time with the new aluminum Immortal Phoenix gimbal, which is rated for 450 knots and 6 gs, significantly expanding the shooting envelope for the L-39 platform.
Xbrand’s work has graced numerous TV, movie, and documentary productions. Recently the company completed shooting on an IMAX-compatible documentary about the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels aerobatic display team. The company is shortly to begin shooting a documentary on the Air Force’s Thunderbirds team. Further movie work has, however, been hampered by the Hollywood writers’/actors’ strike.