Permission to photograph airplanes in public

Robert M. Gary wrote:
However, my concern would be with the TSA. Going around taking
pictures, especially after the recent postings by some groups
concerning blownig up GA aircraftm, would generate interest.

Well, with TSA, you never know what those guys are going to think (or
if, for that matter). It is not just TSA, either. Photographers have
been assaulted for taking pictures of a park when there were children
present, even if the children did not appear in the photos. I know of
one guy who had a parent try to run over with a car, call him a
pervert, and held him prisoner until the cops showed up to set him
free. (Hmmm.... Seems photographers and pilots have a lot in common,
including the general public's assumption that we are criminals.)

Photographers are regularly questioned by people who are concerned
about their pictures of everything from bridges to skyscrapers, to
airplanes. You can argue that nearly everything has some sort of
security risk. ("Look! See that man! He took a picture of a bee on a
flower! He must be a terrorist!")

Bert Krages has created a "bust card" for photographers, not unlike the
one the ACLU gives to protesters. You can find it he

http://www.krages.com/bpkphoto.htm

But really, the only thing you can do if someone starts to hassle you
is to remain polite and non-confrontational, get his badge number if he
has one, and make a complaint to his boss, pointing out that your civil
rights were being violated and that it should not continue.

One thing that the OP should realize, too, is that some municipalities
(notably New York) are very aggressive about collecting licensing fees
for commercial cinematography conducted within their city limits. Some
cities spend a small fortune marketing themselves to film studios. They
claim that it is to help cover their costs for the drain on municipal
services created by film crews, but it gets pretty ridiculous for New
York to argue that a lone individual shooting a documentary in Central
Park is a hazard to himself or anyone else. The real issue is that
these towns want a piece of whatever you make off the film; often they
want far more than you will make off the film.