Picture(s) A Day – 16 January 2010 – Plane Pr0n – More From Aviation Nation 2009

By Parrothead Jeff, on 16 January 2010

Not too much to report today, so this post will focus primarily on some new images freshly developed at Wal Mart while I carried out a shopping expedition Yes, it’s more good stuff from Aviation Nation back in November of last year

I hope y’all like plane pr0n

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - Yep, it's an airshow alright

Some of the things I’ve found to be universal at airshows are airplanes (of course ), crowds of people, food and souvenir stands, and a section of rides and games to keep the really young kids from going bonkers. I wasn’t going for that in the image above – I was trying to get a decent picture of the snow-capped peaks around Mt. Charleston. Still, I like what I got out of this one.

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - T-33 'Ace Maker' flying past the crowd

Ace Maker is a privately owned and operated T-33 jet trainer from the Korean War era with some of the greatest nose art I’ve ever seen They had her up and flying in 2009 and I wish I could’ve gotten a few more pics. Maybe next year

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - T-28 Trojans flying as part of the trainer parade

Without trainers, we’d have one helluva lot more accidents in fighters One of the regular features at Aviation Nation is a parade of trainer aircraft and I for one really do enjoy it. Aside from the historic aspect of the aircraft involved, something tells me that the much lower cost of keeping these aircraft flying also factors into the reasoning for the longevity of this feature at the airshow. It’s something that’s borderline affordable for the organizers and the crowd still loves to see ‘em fly

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - A-1 Skyraiders AKA 'Spads' in hot on an attack run

If you’ve been lurking around this site for any length of time, you no doubt have seen these two aircraft from several different years of airshows Those are A-1 Skyraiders, also known as “Spads” or “Sandys” and they can bring a world of hurt to an enemy Between the bombs, rockets, napalm, and the 20mm cannons, they’re certainly formidable. They even shot down MiG-17 Fresco jet fighters over Vietnam

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - F-86 Sabre about to gun a MiG-15 Fagot

Watching an F-86 and a MiG-15 go at it in a dogfight never gets old, especially when it’s over Nellis at an already great airshow Watching these two jets, there’s really no way to tell the fight’s over Nevada and not the 38^th parallel

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - P-51 Mustangs in the hands of 'The Horsemen' aerobatics team

Something you really don’t see all that often is aerobatics being performed by WWII warbirds. Formation aerobatics are even more rare. The Horsemen are sponsored by Air Show Buzz – a great airshow website – and are a great act to watch

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - B-25 Mitchell bombers fly past

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - B-25 solo fly by

These two are for all the B-25 fans out there This was part of a Doolittle Raiders tribute and they sure looked like they were having a grand old time up there flying for the crowd

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - Parents giving a history lesson 8)

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - Cessna 0-1 Bird Dog on static display

The Jeep and Stinson L9 above are both owned by the First Composite Group of the General Patton Desert Training Center. The big rig you see in the background is their mobile museum. They’ve been going to airshows and other events for many years and showing several new generations quite a bit of history that they might never otherwise learn about considering the state of the public school system.

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - AT-6 Texans fly past behind a C-130 Hercules

I just thought this picture was pretty cool with the airplanes and the mountains and all

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - F-15E Strike Eagle and C-5 Galaxy

16 January 2010 - Aviation Nation 2009 - F-15E Strike Eagle, C-5 Galaxy, F-16 Vipers, RC-135 Rivet Joint

Last, but not least, we have a few more static displays. Gotta love those fast jets and the cargo haulers, too. Of course, my buddy who’s a loadmaster on C-17s swears that the C-5 ain’t near as cool as the Globemaster

So there’s your periodic dose of plane pr0n Here’s hoping you have a great Sunday

——-

Kath

January 17th, 2010 at 1216 · Reply

It’s nice to see that there are a lot of people there — AND it’s people of all ages. That’s nice, too.

That B-25, where you say B-25 solo fly-by — what are those slanted stripes towards the back of the plane? Just looks different.

And I like the pictures of The Horsemen — that’s pretty neat.

Buck

January 17th, 2010 at 1514 · Reply

Kath… I think those stripes are “poetic license” on the D-Day invasion stripes applied to all allied aircraft around 6/6/44.
Parrothead Jeff

January 17th, 2010 at 1902 · Reply

Kath, if you’re close enough to Andrews, you really should try to go to the airshow – you’d love it Just bring ear plugs, OK ?

Yep, lots of people of all ages at these events – I’ve been going since I was 9 months old

I think Buck nailed it about the stripes on the B-25, but I’ll ask ‘em if they’re there next year

And yeah, I love The Horsemen down low, too

Mike

January 17th, 2010 at 1900 · Reply

I am shocked – SHOCKED – that you didn’t make mention of the best part of that last picture, the mighty Hawg nosed Rivet Joint!

Parrothead Jeff

January 17th, 2010 at 1903 · Reply

Sorry, but I thought I was running out of space in the caption I’ll just go and fix it…
Parrothead Jeff

January 17th, 2010 at 1905 · Reply

There, now, all fixed

January 17th, 2010 at 1911 · Reply

Heh, I’m sure the fine folks in the 55th Wing at Offutt appreciate it…although in the interests of full accuracy, it’s the RC-135, not EC-…while the project names (Rivet Joint, Big Safari, Rivet Card, Office Boy, etc) changed on an almost yearly basis during the Cold War, they were always some variant of RC-. The EC-135 is the designation for the Looking Glass flying command post that stood constant 24/7 airborne alert for over 29 years during the Cold War (as well as the designation for a ridiculously bulbous nosed range control/tracking modified -135).

Parrothead Jeff

January 17th, 2010 at 1919 · Reply

Mike, I assure you that I’m much better with the Navy jets as those are what I grew up on But it’s fixed again and I thank you for the corrections and the extra info
Buck

January 18th, 2010 at 1216 · Reply

Funny you should mention those guys… the airborne spooks. I had a few friends that opted to stay with USAFSS and retrain into airborne maintenance after our ground tours on the FLR-12 system were done (see here, if’n ya care). I have minor regrets about not going that way myself from time to time as most of my friends… the ones that lived… retired as Chiefs. I don’t exaggerate about the “that lived” bit. That was a dangerous damned bid’niz; I lost two friends in EC-47s in Vietnam and one went down on an RC-135. The Cold War got hot every so often.
- Parrothead Jeff
  
  January 19th, 2010 at 0312 · Reply
  
  I’ll check that out soon, Buck – thanks for the info
  
  And yes, those who died in the “Cold” War surely do deserve more recognition than they’ve received.

January 17th, 2010 at 1926 · Reply

Haha, you’re welcome…I figure this way all those books I read when I was younger might have actually had a purpose besides the accumulation of random knowledge. Besides, growing up with those aircraft droning overhead night after night, I had better know what the hell I’m talking about with regard to them. Although I must say, when they reengined them with CFM-56s, they lost some of the “charm” that they had when they were equipped with the obnoxiously noisy JT3D/TF-33s.

Speaking of books, if you haven’t read “By Any Means Necessary,” I highly recommend it. Dunno if you’re familiar with “Blind Man’s Bluff,” but “By Any Means Necessary” does for the aircraft recon world what “Blind Man’s Bluff” did for the submarine recon community.

Parrothead Jeff

January 17th, 2010 at 2035 · Reply

And people actually hit me when they spout off stuff they thought was useless trivia after it’s come in handy They say they never wanted to know it

I am familiar with Blind Man’s Bluff – great book I’ll definitely need to pick up By Any Means Necessary once I’m done with Stephen Coonts’ latest book, Disciple, which was a wonderful Christmas present