Planes of Fame
Preview day at the annual Planes of Fame air show. Way less crazy than the Saturday and Sunday part of the show... you see less stuff, but it's worth the trade in my opinion.
Impressive acrobatic work by two former Canadian Armed Forces demonstration team pilots, a father and son duo in a Yak-18 and a Yak-55. Then browsed the aircraft lineup, which I think was smaller this year than last year-- although I think a ton more aircraft flew in on Saturday morning, which I am said I missed!
The only fully authentic flying A6M5 (Reisen) Zero in the world was present, someone brought in their own F-86 Sabre in its shiny unpainted glory, more than a few Supermarino Spitfires and Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, Grumman OV-1 Mohawk, Douglas C-47 Skytrain, Douglas A-26 Invader, McDonnell Douglas F-15A, an operational USAF Boeing C-17 Globemaster III from nearby March Air Reserve Base, and quite a bit more hardware.
They did a 1930s era show with a Boeing P-26 Peashooter, Lockheed Electra, Boeing 4-D Junior Speedmail, Ryan PT-22 Recruits, Stearman PT-17, and a few others that was awesome, then Sean D. Tucker did his customary acrobatics in the Team Oracle Challenger III biplane, which was then shown up by the USAF F-16 Demo team. While not as state-of-the-art as the F-22A Raptor flown by the USAF Raptor Demo team at last year's air show, holy crap the F-16 Block 50/52 is still an impressive aircraft, especially in a clean configuration!
Texas Flying Legends showed up with six WW-2 era aircraft and did a series of impressive formations... friggin' incredible. B-25J Mitchell, P-51D Mustang, TBM-3E Avenger, FM-2P Wildcat, Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX, and Curtiss P-40E Warhawk... that wasn't even their entire fleet, just what they brought to the airshow!
By comparison, ending the day with the Hawker Sea Fury and then F-86F Sabre was almost boring by comparison. The last of the propellor-driven frontline fighters, the Hawker Sea Fury is a beast on the deck, while the F-86F still has great chops in the air, but neither could match the glint of sunset over a half-dozen WW2 classics!