It’s Christmas Eve and I’ve been working on getting a whole bunch of photos edited and ready for uploading.  Oh, I’ll have some pics from today – I did actually leave the apartment and get on the bike   But I wanted to get caught up a bit   How about we start off the night with the pics from Sunday, 13 November 2011 and day two of Aviation Nation?  Yeah, sounds good to me, too

 

 

 The guys from Pratt & Whitney brought something incredibly cool with them that I’ve never seen before.  To be honest, it’s amazing that this display engine still exists.  This display was built in 1947 for use in conventions and sales functions and somehow was never scrapped.  They don’t know if the parts were new or salvaged and much of its back story has been lost, but I’m glad to have been able to see it.

One of the really unique things about this particular display is that it has a geared electric motor at the back end of the engine which turns it over so that you can see how it all works.  I never knew there is a single carburetor which feeds the atomized fuel into the supercharger, that the pushrods are actuated by a cam ring instead of a cam shaft, or that there is a planetary gear reduction drive from the crankshaft to the prop shaft.

A good animation of the basic operation and function of the radial pistons and the master connecting rod can be found here.

 I don’t know if it’s that I’m used to seeing bubble canopies on the P-51D Mustangs, but I really like the older style on this Mustang

 RideNow Powersports on Craig Road brought a few motorcycles down to the airshow.  This Yamaha Roadliner was originally $15,000 but has been marked down to $9,000!  Yes, it’s a very nice bike, but I think I’ll keep my V-Star for now

 I really could live with having a Skymaster like this to play with

 I really like the B-1B Lancer.  Its nickname, The Bone comes from B-ONE and it always sounds fantastic with all four engines in afterburner

 Remember that A-37 Dragonfly from yesterday?  I think I got a decent picture of the cockpit from way back by the wingtip

 As I said before, I don’t care if it has the wrong engine – I just love seeing this Zero fly

 Now, why couldn’t they let me ride along in that back seat

 The Red Horse squadrons are to the Air Force what the Seabees are to the Navy.  They’re deployable construction crews and they rock   I didn’t know until this airshow that at least some of them are actually airborne, but that just adds to the awesomeness

 I couldn’t let this post go by without a gratuitous pic of the T-Birds

 I know how much Kath likes the C-17, so I made sure to get a few good pics of that one for her

 I swear I’m going to get some better pics of the Patriots the next time I’m at an airshow where they’re performing    They really are good 

 Attendees at the Sunday edition of Aviation Nation 2011 were very lucky indeed.  Not only did we get to see a B-2 Spirit on static display, we got to see one fly as well   Be sure to click on the pics for the high resolution versions

 One more C-17 pic for Kath

 The close air support demo was a great addition to the standard airshow I’ve come to know at Nellis AFB   They had this along with an air combat demonstration with the Fighter Weapons School’s aggressor jets playing the part of the bad guys.  Both were wonderful, but a bit difficult to capture with still photography.  I hope they do both again next year

 After their demonstration flights, all the aircraft taxied back along the crowd line on their way back to the hot pits.  All the pilots waved back to the crowd and I think their smiles were almost as big as the ones the kids along the fence line had

Out of all the pics from both days at Aviation Nation 2011, I think two of my favorites are the pic of the second Aggressor F-16 taxiing back and the one with the F-15E cruising down the crowd line.  The kids waving their American flags and the pilots responses from inside the cockpit just seem to bring together and focus the feelings everyone was enjoying that day

 These two pics represent my best effort at making lemonade out of a big pile of lemons   The exposure was horrendous due to my camera not liking the lighting.  Oh well, just do what you can

 I just thought this C-5 Galaxy with the American flag in the hold looked rather impressive

 I only have three panoramas this time, but I really like ‘em   Just look at that exhaust marking on the P-51

 There’s just something humorous about Sylvester the Cat riding a pair of target marking rockets

 Once again, I made sure to include a bit of Naval Aviation Pr0n – The Super Hornet just looks super

That’s all for Aviation Nation 2011.  Here’s hoping you enjoyed the pics almost as much as I enjoyed the show and taking them

Have fun everyone