Mariusz "Mike" Adamski (born January 10, 1974) is a USA resident, an American aerial photographer, media manager and defense analyst who has flown many times worldwide with the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

and

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mil ...

at Krzesiny Air Base. He is a graduate of the National Defense University in Warsaw, Poland. Adamski's works have been published in books,

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

s, important journals and aviation publications, such as ''

Aviation Week & Space Technology ''Aviation Week & Space Technology'', often abbreviated ''Aviation Week'' or ''AW&ST'', is the flagship magazine of the Aviation Week Network. The weekly magazine is available in print and online, reporting on the aerospace, defense and aviati ...

'', '' Air Forces Monthly'' and ''

Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldes ...

''. He is a part of the team of the aviation magazine ''

Skrzydlata Polska ''Skrzydlata Polska'' is a Polish aeronautics magazine, published since 1930. It is the oldest journal on the subject of aviation in Poland.Andrzej Oset, Geneza Skrzydlatej Polski, "Skrzydlata Polska", nr 9 (1997), s. 58-61, The magazine is impor ...

'' (Wings of Poland). He is a member of ISAP - International Society for Aviation Photography and ZPAF - Związek Polskich Artystów Fotografików (Association of Polish Art Photographers). Adamski is known for shooting aircraft from unusual perspectives such as a runway centerline with

takeoff Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aerospace vehicle leaves the ground and becomes airborne. For aircraft traveling vertically, this is known as liftoff. For aircraft that take off horizontally, this usually involves starting with a t ...

jet wake ruffling his clothes or through air-to-air photography.

Biography

Adamski specializes in the air-to-air photography on board of maneuverable,

supersonic aircraft A supersonic aircraft is an aircraft capable of supersonic flight, that is, flying faster than the speed of sound (Mach number 1). Supersonic speed, Supersonic aircraft were developed in the second half of the twentieth century. Supersonic airc ...

. He spends hours preparing for aerial sessions and annually puts in research at the Military Institute of Aviation Medicine in Warsaw where he undergoes a series of tests that fighter pilots must experience. Adamski was the first Pole to be admitted by the American authorities to Cheyenne Mountain Complex (NORAD) and

Schriever Air Force Base Schriever Space Force Base, previously Schriever Air Force Base, Falcon Air Force Base, and Falcon Air Force Station, is a base of the United States Space Force located approximately east of Peterson Space Force Base near Colorado Springs in ...

, where the command and control center of

GPS satellite GPS satellite blocks are the various production generations of the Global Positioning System (GPS) used for satellite navigation. The first satellite in the system, Navstar 1, was launched on 22 February 1978. The GPS satellite constellatio ...

s is located. He also aerially photographed the strategic stealth bomber such as the

B-2 Spirit The Northrop (later Northrop Grumman) B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American heavy strategic bomber, featuring low-observable stealth technology designed to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defenses. A subsonic flying ...

. In 2008, Adamski documented the transfer of

C-130E The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally design ...

military aircraft A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat: * Combat aircraft are designed to destroy enemy equipm ...

from the

to the Polish Air Force at

Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the ...

. President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

had promised the aircraft to equip Poland's heavy airlift needs. This photo shoot was published in the May 2008 ''Skrzydlata Polska''. In May 2008, Adamski traveled to

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful ...

s being manufactured for the Polish Air Force. During the 11th Annual Polish Air Show in Radom, a direct link off their website directed viewers and referred to Adamski as a "world famous aerial-photographer" and featured his bio. A photo display of his work was also present. In 2018 he obtained US citizenship.

Publications

Adamski has published hundreds of covers in books and magazines and also three authors books - ''Where Eagles Dare'', ''Reaching for the Sky,'' and the ''Passion of Flight'', School of Dreams and Per Aspera Ad Astra. He gave a speech at the International Aviation Photography conference in

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...

in March 2007. In 2007 he also published an album collection of 96 photos taken by him over three years. One of the photos is a unique photograph capture of an

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it ...

in the

aerial refueling Aerial refueling, also referred to as air refueling, in-flight refueling (IFR), air-to-air refueling (AAR), and tanking, is the process of transferring aviation fuel from one aircraft (the tanker) to another (the receiver) while both aircraft a ...

position from the boom perspective of the pilot.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adamski, Mariusz 1974 births Living people Polish photographers Aerial photographers Place of birth missing (living people) Polish emigrants to the United States