Dayton Airshow 2009

The USAF Heritage flight for the airshow had a P-51 and an A-10 fly formation. This is perhaps the first Heritage flight I've seen where the P-51 was flying formation with an aircraft actually made to operate at similar speeds.

An A-10 clearing hard left after a mock strafing run with some nice trailing vortices.

A-10 close pass. This has always been one of my favorite aircraft. It looks like it will take everything you throw at it, get angry and blow you up. Maybe not in that order.

The Força Aérea Brasileira Esquadrilha da Fumaça (Brazilian Air Force Smoke Squadron) flying seven Embraer T-27 Tucano turboprop aircraft. This squadron only rarely performs in the U.S. making this a rare sight. Too bad for us as they are the most precise demo squad I've seen in a long while.

The rightmost aircraft is actually doing a series of rolls around the 5 and 6 aircraft formation. The Força Aérea Brasileira Esquadrilha da Fumaça (Brazilian Air Force Smoke Squadron)

Notice the passing aircraft (the blur) on the right behind aircraft 1. The Força Aérea Brasileira Esquadrilha da Fumaça (Brazilian Air Force Smoke Squadron)

The right aircraft is a bit behind the left as they cross paths here. The Força Aérea Brasileira Esquadrilha da Fumaça (Brazilian Air Force Smoke Squadron)

The Força Aérea Brasileira Esquadrilha da Fumaça (Brazilian Air Force Smoke Squadron)

The Força Aérea Brasileira Esquadrilha da Fumaça (Brazilian Air Force Smoke Squadron)

The Força Aérea Brasileira Esquadrilha da Fumaça (Brazilian Air Force Smoke Squadron)

C-17 Globemaster III prior to takeoff. While not so large as the C-5 Galaxy, the C-17 still has a wingspan of 170 feet, is 55 ft tall and can carry 170,900 lbs of cargo. All of that is shoved along (quite rapidly) by nearly 162,000 foot lbs of force.

C-17 Globemaster III shortly after takeoff. For this demonstration, the C-17 climbed rapidly with something like a 45-50 degree angle of attack. Not bad considering it weighs something like 141 tons EMPTY. This maneuver is supposed to help the aircraft gain as much altitude as possible before clearing the hopefully friendly airspace around the runway.

C-17 in the final phase of retracting its gear.

The C-5 Galaxy is one of the largest aircraft in the world with a wingspan of over 220 feet and a height of 65 feet. It can carry a payload of 270,000 lbs around the world with aerial refueling.

B-52 Stratofortress doing a low, slow pass. These aircraft can deliver over 70,000 lbs of ordinance stored internally and on wing mounted pylons. The B-52 is slated to stay operational until 2040, 84 years after the first wing was activated. The two bumps on the bottom of the nose are FLIR and low light camera pods for low level operations. There's an ominous warning painted next to the FLIR pod about touching the glass and receiving a potentially lethal shock. Presumably this is only when the unit is energized, but I'm not entirely sure what's up with that. Maybe a static charge problem.

Patty Wagstaff, member of the National Aviation Hall of Fame flying her Extra 300.

The USAF Thunderbirds were created in 1953 as the 3600th Air Demonstration Unit at Luke Air Force Base. Originally piloting F-84G Thunderjets, the Thunderbirds now fly the F-16C and D. Just this year (2009) they transitioned to Block 52 variants giving the team more advanced avionics and 3600 lbs of additional thrust.

The Thunderbirds start every show with the crews marching abreast down the line of aircraft, each pair breaking off at their own aircraft.

Following the enlisted men, the pilots also walk down the line. As each pilot breaks off and stands before his crew they seem to perform some kind of ritualized hand slapping routine. This is VERY precise, and no, I don't intend any sarcasm. The number 5 aircraft seen here is the only one with the number painted inverted. This is because 5 spends much of the show upside down.

There is a brief period after the pilots mount the aircraft where the crew climbs the ladder and strikes a pose. Right after this he will detach the ladder and lay it off to the side. Any delays in the routine (like a pilot taking a little too long to put on their gear) and the rest just stand at attention until ready to proceed. This implies that while they memorize a sequence of movements, there is no set timing. Presumably they have a specified man for each part that starts moving first and the others instantly follow suit. Of course, I could be way off...

Some of the team standing at attention as the Thunderbirds taxi to the end of the runway.

Preparing for takeoff at the end of the runway, some of the ground crew are performing final checks. I had noticed that at least one "remove before flight" flag was still attached to the right side of the aircraft (just ahead of the number on the inlet) as they taxied away. Presumably the couple of legs I see behind the aircraft here are removing these amongst other things.

The Block 52 F-16C contains a Pratt and Whitney F100-PW-229 afterburning turbofan engine. These provide up to 29,160 foot lbs of thrust with the afterburner in an aircraft that weighs nearly 19,000 lbs empty. This gives it the ability to climb vertically if need be and reach mach 2+ in level flight. The F-16 is a small aircraft by modern fighter standards at only 49.5 feet in length and 31 feet in wingspan. The F-15, for example, is more than ten feet larger in both length and span.