More airshow stuff, because I'm still basking in the glow. Here's a nifty C-47.
I had my lunch on my folding chair in front of this nifty plane. Italian sausage and peppers. Yum! But if I wasn't keen on supporting the museum, I wouldn't have paid $8.00 for it.
Then it was a blast from the past with the "Japanese" contingent--the planes from "Tora, Tora, Tora!" Here we have a Japanese Val Dive Bomber and two Zeroes...sort of.
These aircraft were some of those made for the epic movie Tora, Tora, Tora!. Back then, there were no real Jap warbirds left flying so several were built from T-6 Texans and BT-13 and BT-15 trainers, which were cheap and plentiful back then. (Sigh...) After the movie was finished, they were sold off to collectors, some flying in other movies and TV shows. Several still fly today on the airshow circuits. Here are three.
And fly they did.
Are we at Lakefront Airport, or Hickam Field?
But sure as art imitates life, just like in 1945, the Japanese aircraft all went away, and the hero of the day arrived overhead.
Back then there were thousands of B-29s. Now there's one. (Soon to be two...oh, Joy!)
And then, after FiFi landed, we got a surprise addition to the airshow--an unscripted visit from the Louisiana Air Guard--maybe some of Juvat's pals.
Hey look! F-15s!
They flew over a couple of times, and then jumped in the pattern and shot three approaches, each time coming in gear down then pulling it back up and flying the length of the runway fast and low before pulling back up again.
Look--an F-15 flying cover for a B-29. How many times you ever going to see THAT?
Now he's just showing off. And yeah, I was impressed.
I talked to the airshow narrator afterwards. He had no idea they would be there. He said they just showed up and contacted the tower for clearance, which they got.
Too bad they didn't arrive on scene five minutes earlier. Could have been like that great scene from The Final Countdown.
I got to KNEW this morning right when they opened. Had to get there early to get my pics before all the people who have been put n this earth specifically to get in front of whatever I want to take pictures of could show up.
Here's a nifty C-47.
And a T-6 Texan.
Bell P-63 King Cobra, one of just four left.
A P-40.
A Goodyear FG-1D. (WANT!!!)
A General Motors-built version of the Grumman F4F Wildcat known as an FM-2.
Supermarine Spitfire Mk9.
Can't have an airshow without a P-51 Mustang or three. (There were two here.)
Grumman TBM Avenger.
The B-17 that has been taunting me the last two days.
And Fifi, the B-29.
Yeah, this was gonna be a good day. No power in the 'verse could mess this day up. And these are just a prelude of pics to come.
Their Boeing building looks like my room when I was a kid--airplanes hanging from ther ceiling everywhere. Only there aren't models.
Four levels of airplanes hung from cables, with observation decks so you can see 'em fairly close.
Above, this Douglas Dauntless looks like it's about to dive-bomb some Toyotas out in the parking lot.
And this Corsair--an F4U-4 variant--is coming in for a landing.
There's a beautiful Grumman TBM Avenger here, too.
You can look right down and into it's cockpit.
There's a gun-nose B-25 Mitchell here.
And a whole B-17.
The B-17, an E model, was one that crash-landed in Greenand during the war. It was recovered in the 90's and brought here for restoration. Story here.
And last but not least--a P-51D Mustang.
Head back into their other building--the main one--and they've got this C-47 on dispay that actually flew in here to be preserved after more than sixty years of flying military and civilian cargo.
This engine is ready to turn over again any time.
And it'g got a Spitfire Mk. V to keep it company.
And yes, all day long I was calculating the tensile strength of those cables...(My weight * xft of drop / long fall to hard floor if performed incorrectly...)
Great day...and just fifteen minutes by bike from my house now.
