I'll refrain from answering the 'dark spot' question, since JD told me yesterday at the airshow.
And, for Tony and Aloft, all of those photos were taken with either a 70-200mm f/2.8 (2 lbs) or 400mm f/5.6 (2.5 lbs) lens. No massive telephotos needed. In fact, everything was handheld at around 1/4000 of a second: Trying to handhold a fast 500 or 600mm lens would have been near impossible (12 to 15 pounds, plus camera body) and a tripod would have been too slow for a lot of the action. The 'secret' is to know generally what you want before it happens, be in the right place, have the right lens, and really work on your technique and exposure so that they're second nature and not a hinderance when you're shooting.
Little things, like making sure the aircraft aren't overlapping unless you make it really obvious that you wanted them to do so, watching your diagonals and off center composition, picking the backgrounds, and anticipating the shot make the difference between OK and 'Wow' images. That, and recognizing that when the subjects are moving that fast, you need blazing shutter speeds, a large DOF, and the willingness to burn some film to get the good shots.
One of our friends is interested in photography and he tried using my gear. His first 20 photos were lousy. Poorly exposed, shots of nose cones, tail surfaces, and smoke trails . . . After 10 minutes of instruction and pointers, he shot some great photos of a C-130 JATO takeoff. It's kind of like flying. Almost anyone can hack through it, but there are a few, simple things that can make it a LOT easier.
And besides, it's great fun!
Edit: It's late and, after a long night of studying, I MUST get some sleep. But first, that photo hosting site must use some wicked compression. The quality of those photos took a huge dive. The originals are tack sharp, show no pixelation or artifacting, and have much better color and contrast ranges. But it was free, so I won't get too worked up!
