The archive was delighted to hear from Bill Boardman of Seattle this month recounting how he acquired a print of John’s Biplane many years ago. His letter appears below, lightly edited. 

It was in the early 1970’s. I had just finished a five year tour as a Naval Aviator and happened to visit the International Center of Photography in NYC. I was instantly taken by one photograph on exhibit, John Zimmerman’s Biplane (below).

 A pilot myself, I was captivated by a number of things in the photo: how the swirling vortex on a small piece of land at about the 9:00 position was so clear. I also noticed the pilot had a little right rudder input which made the red and white rudder show clearly. I would have expected the pilot to have left rudder input (to keep the nose up) at that point in the roll. I thought perhaps he put the rudder in to get the colorful ruder in the picture. If so, very clever.  Another element was how the image precisely captured the 90 degree roll position, which in a rapid roll is not easy.

I’ve lived with the print for 45 years. Lately I’ve been thinking about where it will go when I pass on. I met a man recently who has a collection of antique aircraft, including a Stearman Model 75, the same type of aircraft used in the Biplane photo. He is considering opening an Aviation Museum at the Bremerton, WA airport; it occurred to me that this would be an ideal place for my print, where it could be enjoyed by many for years to come.      

Bill Boardman

A note from Linda Zimmerman:  Bill contacted the archive to learn the history behind Biplane. He suspected the pilot was either Frank Tallman or Paul Mantz, two famous stunt pilots and co-owners of a large museum of antique airplanes in Southern California. In fact, the pilot was Frank Tallman, and one thing Boardman, a former Navy pilot, and Tallman had in common was experience in crash landings! In 2005, Boardman ejected from a fighter jet seconds before it crashed, parachuting into Oregon’s Crater lake in spectacular fashion. 

Below: Zimmerman mounts his cameras on an antique biplane to capture the thrill of open cockpit flying off the California Coast, 1963.

Zimmerman achieved the blur that conveyed the feel of a spin by mounting a remote-controlled Nikon set at a slow shutter speed on the fuselage; he ran the wire to the remote switch down the joystick and tasked Tallman with being both pilot and cameraman. They worked out the stunts on the ground before Tallman took off.

 

(Left) Zimmerman’s Biplane was first published as part of a Saturday Evening Post cover story on The Thrills of Open Cockpit Flying (May 18, 1963).    

Biplane has been exhibited internationally, most recently at the Post Ranch Gallery in Big Sur in 2018. It is available in a limited edition print of 15 (size: 20×30). Price: $2500.