Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

C-130 Shadow

Posted by James Turnbull, Monday, 17th April 2006

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On a bit of field in St Louis, we see the shadow of a Lockheed C-130 gunship. Click through and have a look for the plane, but come back here once you’re done…

You couldn’t find it, huh? That’s because this isn’t a shadow, it’s a bit of art. The detailed life size plane shadow was painted in 2002 for an art festival held in the urban wasteland of North St. Louis City in Missouri. Apparently some of the towers and whatnot around the area were also done as part of the same festival.

Thanks: Sam Ley

6 Responses to 'C-130 Shadow'

  1. 1. Alame says:

    Wow…thats some…er…art…yeh…

  2. 2. jason says:

    in st. louis, it’s not a “field.” we call that a “vacant lot.” nearby are what we like to call “stabbings”

  3. 3. Sigsegv says:

    Dude, one version of the C-130 is a gunship, but it’s mostly used for cargo hauling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-130

  4. 4. randall says:

    and the gunship version is called the AC-130

  5. 5. Brock says:

    Would be a rather small plane isn’t it?

  6. 6. Sam says:

    Well, I’m the one who suggested the location, but I’m not the actual artist. A few tidbits. It is a C-130, and I think the artist intended it to be the gunship version. However, I don’t know if you could even tell the difference from a sillouette. I’ll have to ask him when I see him if it was the AC-130, or the ‘regular kind’. ;)

    Another fun tidbit, the plane wasn’t painted onto the lot, it was burned onto the lot with kerosene and propane weeding torches. Fun stuff!

    The neighborhood is an interesting one, mostly casino ‘remote parking’, and empty half-demolished buildings. There is a nice guy who squats in one nearby who owns a bunch of crazy wolf-dogs that protect the building. The dogs are nice once they get to know you though. The location is used for the Artica festival every year, http://www.artica.org, its a guerilla style art festival held in the fall. Very little organization, but lots of people come and do things of their own accord. Like burn images planes into the ground.

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