Have a look at this. It's a 7 frame gif I made just for the occasion:
It doesn't necessarily "prove" anything but the similarities are, well, striking. That is to say, the angles and lighting(such as it is) are virtually identical with one of a landing buff I pulled off the web. Resized and flipped horizontally yields the exact(except for some apparent trimming in a photo editing program off the bottom of the "original" buff. The physical size difference of the original pic and this one could account for some random fuzziness/lighting/detail.
Also note, that overlaying the pic off the web shows the buff in a "landing" attitude(just before flaring one would suspect), just off the deck, er, runway. I left the landing gear(barely visible) on the overlay.
FWIW, comparing the second, smaller pic posted on the thread yields identical results; exact angle and lighting. What are the odds? I say they're fakes ;^)
Also, I spent quite a while(God only knows why!) looking for a pic of USS Ranger that may have been used for the original. The only candidate I found didn't exist any more and all I had to look at was a thumbnail, that when zoomed in lost most of its detail.
Another aside; I probably looked at several hundred pics of buffs in flight and found several that would suggest the fuselage is virtually parallel to the horizon when in straight and level flight. Like when on a bombing run, etc...
FGS