Finally getting around to posting some more photos from the air show. The past couple weeks have been super busy, but here we go...
The Flash Fire Jet Truck. It's a truck built around a jet afterburner and it tops out at 375 mph!
A P-51 Mustang and a P4U Corsair sitting on the tarmac before the show...
And the Corsair in flight.
The University of Iowa Engineering jets in flight. These are reconditioned Cold War-era jet trainers that carry an impressive array of equipment. These jets are not very fast, but they are LOUD.
The Lucas Oil pilot pulled off some crazy aerobatics including deliberately stalling the plane and causing it to tumble out of the sky in free fall before regaining control and pulling up just above the ground. He also cut through a ribbon that was about 10 or 12 feet off the ground. You can see the yellow ribbon trailing from the wing in the photo below.
Next was a small plane that did some of the same stunts as the Lucas Oil pilot, but she also raced against the Flash Fire truck.
The Aeroshell Aerobatic team flies WWII T-6 Texans and they fly in tight formation for most of their performance. Their flying was very precise and it was fun to watch. Their planes were so close together for much of the time that they appeared to be only inches apart.
A P-51 Mustang and a Japanese Zero flew a mock dogfight and even fired blanks from the machine guns for realism. This Zero was also in the movie "Tora, Tora, Tora."
The Flash Fire truck raced against Otto the helicopter. This part was kinda meh, but it was mostly geared towards the kids.
The headliner of the show was the F-22 Raptor which is that U.S. Air Force's newest fighter jet. It could do some really bizarre maneuvers like doing a backflip in the air to pivot 180ยบ and return to target. The F-22 is partly stealth, so it carries all of its missiles internally. The pilot opened the missile doors as it flew over at one point in the demonstration.
The air show concluded with the F-22 flying in formation with the WWII era P-51. That was cool to see the contrast between old and new.
Usually getting out of the air show is an ordeal because when thousands of cars try to leave all at once it creates an instant traffic jam that can last for an hour or more. Luckily the state fair was going on at the same time as the air show this year (which seems like really poor planning), so there weren't quite as many people and we got out without killing anybody.
It's been a while since I've been to an air show and it was a blast!
