In fairness, I had to show off the Blue Angels flying in their Echelon Parade. Close and tight. Just the way they like it.

This is a C-47 Skytrain, which is a military version of the civilian DC-3 (the DC-3 was first:-). During WWII, the C-47 had flown for every branch of the US Military, and all major allied powers. During WWII, the C-47 saw duty in the Normandy Invasion (where some towed gliders full of troops while others carried 28 paratroopers who jumped into the battle), flying the "Hump" over the Himalayas and general all around supply for everyone, everywhere. While the C-47 was officially called the Skytrain by the US Army Air Corps, there were at least 22 Designations for this familiar aircraft, but it was best known as the Gooney Bird. By the end of WWII, there were 10,692 DC-3/C-47's built and they played a large part in the 1948 Berlin Airlift and saw military action in Korea and Vietnam. To this day, there are many DC-3's and C-47 variants still in service.

Ponchito is a gorgeous example of a nicely restored B-52 Mitchell bomber. This is the same type aircraft Doolittle's Raiders flew on their famous bombing mission of Japan. Of interest, you might notice that there is one-quarter of the engine cowling that is painted olive drab green instead of being polished like the rest of the aircraft...if it were polished like the rest of the aircraft, reflections of the sun could temporarily blind the pilot. It's the details that count 🙂

While the story of the Memphis Belle is well known and documented by the movie with the same name, many don't know how to interpret the bombs/stars/swastika's painted on the nose. For anyone who is interested, each bomb represented a single bombing mission. The stars above some of the bombs signify that the Memphis Bell was one of the lead aircraft for that particular bombing mission. The swastika's represent confirmed German planes shot down by the aircraft's gunners. Note that while this aircraft is painted up commemorate the Memphis Belle, on the original Memphis Belle, the forward gun seen here had a much larger, square plexiglass opening that extended all the way into the bombardier's plexiglass.

How is this for deception? I'll bet you thought these are the Blue Angel pilots, didn't you! Blue uniforms, obviously a Blue Angel jet...WRONG! Take a closer look, those are Air Force uniforms and those are actually the Thunderbird pilots walking down the flight line to join a group of new Air Force enlistees in repeating the oath of enlistment in front of their shiny white jets:-) This airshow was the first time in 12 years that the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angles participated in the same airshow.

There were tents and tent of all things to do with flying but I will just show you a few. Maybe next week, I will show you a few more. The mandatory earplugs, in case you forgot yours at home, sunglasses, because how can you be a cool aviator without the glasses... and a mini version of the F-18 that the Blue Angels fly and a mini F-16 that the Thunderbirds fly. So many fun things, so little money. LOL

A Barksdale B-52 "Stratofortress" AKA a BUF (Big Ugly *ucker). The tail used to contain a gunner (and guns!), but the gunner was replaced by remotely controlled guns and then the guns were replaced with beeps and squeaks (jammers!). This venerable B-52 had its first flight in 1952 and entered service in February 1952 and will most likely still be flying in 2052! There were 744 B-52's made, with the last delivery in October 1962...they are all old. The B-52 can carry up to 70,000 pounds of weapons and can fly more than 8,800 miles without inflight refueling. With tanker support, it has unlimited range.