I was pleastantly suprised with the city I hate so much for hosting a pretty good airshow...
Some of the modern exhibits featured:
F-117-one for exhibition and one for a flight demonstration.
F-18A and E-the A just sat thier but we saw a demo of the super hornet (E variant)
F-16C-demo
F-15C-exhibit
F-4F-demo and exhibit-Intersting fact, the unit that was on display is currently training the German Air Force (hence, the F variant) in New Mexico.
A-10-exhibit
E/A-6B-exhibit
Countless Cargo Aircraft of the 911th TAG
C-130,KC-135,C5, and all those other big lifters.
But Before I get carried away..
Hidden away from the major exhibits was the most beatiful aircraft there...
B-17G "Yankee Lady"-I got to tour the aircraft for 5$ dollars, and even got to talk with some of the crew, which contained many 8th AF veterans. It turns out that the "yankee lady" was built after the war and saw service in the coast guard, In fact only 1 B-17 that saw combat still flies today out of England.
Im horrible with names, but the two veterans I talked too were very helpful with some questions I had. One veteran who I met while inside the aircraft was a B26 crew member, he told me that the B26 had a worse training pilot loss record than than its wartime pilot loss record, go figure. He also said when they saw red puffs of flak that meant fighters were soon to be there.
Another veteran I talked two more indepth was a tail gunner on a B24 who had 16 missions under his belt when the war in europe ended. He told me that the 50. cals on the rear end of the B17/B25 had a good chance of hitting at 1000 yards. He had 1 kill, he oddly scored it on his first mission. He said the 109 approached very high from 6 oclock. He said the first burst of fire he gave from the 50s caused the 109s pilot to attempt a bailout, But he didnt let him when "I saw the cockpit swing open and as he started climbing out I let loose again and turned him into hamburger". He said that most dead six attacks were carried out inside the contrails of the B17s, and "you wouldnt know they were thier until you saw thier rudder sticking out of the contrails". He was a very nice man and was even wounded by flak that he had removed from his thumb and remains at his house to this day. He claimed to see plenty of Me262s and Me163s saying that the Me163 was more of a threat to him personally than the 262. Another veteran that was thier listening voiced his oppinion about the Me262 and very soon I was hearing intersting stories left and right.
I wish I had a Video Camera.
But I did grab almost a roll of pictures a few from inside the B17 and its nose art.
As soon as i get them developed, I will link them on this forum.
