I was able to catch the Wings of Freedom Tour when they came through Spokane last week. I recommend it.
The B-52 is from Fairchild AFB’s outdoor air museum. I don’t know if it will show up in this pic, but there’s a red star on this plane. This big boy shot down a MIG in Vietnam.
I always liked seeing the B-52’s coming in and out of Fairchild when I was a kid.
Did you know that whilst being a decorated General, founding father and all around great guy George Washington was also the revolutionary war’s greatest fighter pilot?
I grew up about a mile and a half from the end of the runway at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where an entire wing of B-52s was stationed during the cold war. We were very accustomed to the windows rattling in our house
Dang it i’m jealous. I was gonna go but I had to work 
.
I grew up about a mile and a half from the end of the runway at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where an entire wing of B-52s was stationed during the cold war. We were very accustomed to the windows rattling in our house
When we moved to Central CA, discovered we were at the turning point after BUFFs took off from Castle AFB. 5pm everyday, the roar of Freedom flew over our house. Now I kinda miss it since Castle closed.
Yea if the South would have had a couple more A-10 wings attached to the troops the outcome of the struggle would have been different. I doubt that Sherman would have rolled thru the Atlanta Airport if the B52 wing would have presented Rolling Thunder like we presented it in the late 60s early 70s in SE Asia. I felt real sorry for the soldier who was stuck at the Valley Forge airport and had to wait a hundred and fifty years for planes to be invented to catch a flight home. Bummer
I forgot the title of the book I once read where some Supremacist time travelers brought AK-47 technology to the Civil War. Oh my, full automatic rifles could have Won the West in a hurry.
I lived across the River from Barksdale AFB before the 1st Gulf War. We kind of figured out something was up when the whole Bomber Wing fired up the B-52s at 0 dark thirty and took off pretty hot one following another several nights in a row, and the Warthogs were doing close air support and tank busting runs on our mtb area just off the flight line. Two old dogs teaching pilots younger than the plane’s frame how it is done. Don’t get me started I am sort of a foamer when it comes to airframes.
I grew up about a mile and a half from the end of the runway at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where an entire wing of B-52s was stationed during the cold war. We were very accustomed to the windows rattling in our house
I loved going to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patt as a kid.
One of those Harry Turtledove books.
My son, my Dad, and I leave for Oshkosh in about a week and a half for four solid days of airplanes including homebuilts, production aircraft, current generation military aircraft, airshows, hangars full of airplane accessories, and, of course, Warbirds! This is our eighth visit and the highlight of every year. Dad flew in the Air Force and later became an FAA Examiner and taught my son and I to fly in the same airplane 40 years apart. My son is now an instructor and will be looking for a job among the many flight schools with booths at Oshkosh.
If you like these types of planes, you need to get to Oshkosh. It’s like the Woodstock of Aviation.
Greg
Yea i was flying on the Blue Duck Airline from Chicago to Lacrosse,WI for a meeting one time and we had a layover/whistle stop in Oshkosh. The pilot said we had about an hour wait due to the heavy traffic of the airshow. He mentioned that we had already cleared the admission gate and if we all promised to be back in 50min we could go look at all the pretty airplanes for a while. Had a real hard time getting back on the plane and almost missed my meeting. Sort of wish I had cause the meeting sucked and the Airshow was one of the coolest things I ever saw. That was in the 70s before it got really really big but was still cool.
… and the Warthogs were doing close air support and tank busting runs on our mtb area just off the flight line…
I spent 22 years in Marine Corps air defense, seeing pretty much every air frame in the US arsenal. The A-10 is by far and away my favorite. Oh this should have been a Marine Corps bird. What we do with helicopters for CAS is awesome, but seeing a Warthog in flight, low and slow, will put the fear you in even when they’re on your side!
… and the Warthogs were doing close air support and tank busting runs on our mtb area just off the flight line…
I spent 22 years in Marine Corps air defense, seeing pretty much every air frame in the US arsenal. The A-10 is by far and away my favorite. Oh this should have been a Marine Corps bird. What we do with helicopters for CAS is awesome, but seeing a Warthog in flight, low and slow, will put the fear you in even when they’re on your side!
I’m a Texas Aggie. Several years ago an A-10 event was shared at an Aggie Corps forum.
A platoon, I think they were Marines, were about to be overrun. Two A-10s, one piloted by an Aggie, were in the area and very low on fuel when they heard about it on the radio. There was thick cloud cover and the platoon was in a narrow valley. The A-10 pilots decided they could not leave fellow warriors to die so they flew into the cloud cover, low on fuel, to support the platoon. It was getting dark and when they saw the platoon with the enemy yards away, they turned on all their lights to draw enemy fire away from the platoon. Then they unleashed Hell and the platoon escaped with some injuries, but alive.
I had a less dramatic encounter with a pair of A-10s many years ago in South Carolina during a gliding contest I was participating in. I was in my glider at about 5,000’ cruising along below a nice cloud street at around 100kts. thinking I was going to win the contest day. I slowed down when I hit some really strong lift and turned left and right while pulling up to maximize the time in the lift while gaining about 1,000’ in about half a minute. It was a beautiful thing. After I had slowed down, I heard jet engines, but couldn’t determine the direction the sound was coming from. Suddenly, an A-10 appeared about 300 yds. off of my right wingtip with full flaps down trying to match my speed. Then, a second one formed up on the first and they circled while I worked the lift under the clouds. It turned out to be a spectacular thermal and within a minute or two, I was at cloudbase. I pushed over and went out from under the cloud at 100kts. again and they stayed with me for a couple more minutes. Finally, the lead plane moved in closer to about 100 yds., rocked his wings, retracted flaps, and moved on. It was one of the coolest moments I ever had in a glider. I wished we had been able to find a common frequency to talk on.
Greg
243.0 Mhz…might’ve pissed some off chatting over guard though!
A-10s are totally awesome…no doubt about that. As are AC-130s…both amazing CAS birds. I got to control both in training as an Air Liaison Officer and they are both awe-inspiring. Being on the ground when their cannons hose the ground is to be very happy you are on the US’ side.
That being said…in the initial phase of OIF, I was a WSO on a B-1 providing CAS to the Army at Objective Floyd (near An Najaf) the night of the big sandstorm. We checked in with the JTAC with 3 hours of gas and 12 GBU-31. And proceeded to kill a bunch of tanks and artillery pieces, meanwhile they sent a number of flights of A-10s home because at the time they didn’t have an all weather capability.
God damn that sandstorm! Worst night of my life. We not only had to turn down our radars, we had drop the arrays and hope the rest of our antenna farm would be there afterwards.
It was brutal! Our controllers worked purely over the TADIL’s and radio.
My son, my Dad, and I leave for Oshkosh in about a week and a half for four solid days of airplanes including homebuilts, production aircraft, current generation military aircraft, airshows, hangars full of airplane accessories, and, of course, Warbirds! This is our eighth visit and the highlight of every year. Dad flew in the Air Force and later became an FAA Examiner and taught my son and I to fly in the same airplane 40 years apart. My son is now an instructor and will be looking for a job among the many flight schools with booths at Oshkosh.
If you like these types of planes, you need to get to Oshkosh. It’s like the Woodstock of Aviation.
Greg
I grew up with a Dad who was a aviation enthusiast. Inumerable air shows around SoCal. I loved the big iron old war birds. My favorite–i can recall it at Lancaster Ca Fly Inn–was a BearCat coming down the flight line on a speed run. Jeebuz that engine! I was amazed at how huge a P-38 was. It’s basically as big as a B-25. Had no idea
So I spent virtually every weekend and week night out in the garage helping my Dad build his Thorpe T-18. i can remember when he came home with nothing but a card board box filled with plans from Mr Thorpes shop/business. We fabricated and built everything on this plane excepting two pieces that involved complex/compound curves. Had to send out for those. My Dad’s Thorpe T-18: 180 Hp wyoming engine/fuel injected. My mom refuses to fly in it.
Dad is retired now to a aviation community in SC. His hanger and workshop are attached to their house and his hanger leads right out to the taxi way and their community grass strip
I’m not sure how many planes my Dad has at any one time. It’s confusing. He maintains his AI and and a A&P certification. He’s always rebuilding some plane for himself or someone else or to sell
He found an abandoned Bucker Yungman in some barn in PA and bought it off the widow of the guy who’d brought it back to the US. He rebuilt that thing from the ground up. Tore it apart and rebuilt the wing spars; recovery it. Rebuilt all the cable and rod controls; Rebuilt the engine. When he was done he repainted it in what it would have looked like when it flew for the Austrian AF before the anschluss.
pic taken when i rode my moto over to his place in SC for Father’s Day
I went over there last time before i went off to Afghan and he was restoring a Interstate Cadet. He’d just found an old abandoned one and was doing a full restoration job on it to sell it to someone at some future point.
Dad’s coming over next month to teach me basics of electric welding. I know how to weld with Oxy/Axy but that’s it.
Love civil aviation and the old iron war birds.
really love that at 60 years old i am still learning useful skills from my Dad.
/r
Dude, that Bucker is sweet. That’s gotta be a rare bird here in the US. Everything I’ve read about that airplane is that it was an absolute joy to fly and perform aerobatics in.