Air Show

Bob- Nothing like the sound of 2 V12s flying over.

In Sweetwater, TX in the mid-50s, my father, an ex-P-51 pilot, heard one overhead while at the dinner table and went running outside, me following, to see a local rancher's P-51D go by. Beautiful sound and avgas was only about $0.30 a gallon back then. Warbirds traded hands pretty reasonably priced in 1955.

 

Then there is the Avro Lancaster 4 Merlin's flying in close formation.

 

It sounds amazing

 

Or on takeoff:

 

I live just about 20 minutes away from where our Lanc calls home. Every weekend in the summer she buzzes over the house, fairly low in fact. I hear her coming well before I see her. The sound is amazing.

 

Here are 12 of them although only 8 are in the air.



I am really sorry to have missed the Canadian Lancaster when it was in the UK and flying with the BBMF Lancaster. Hopefully we will have another airworthy one soon. Perhaps the Canadians will come back for a threesome!

 

There was another which was in process of being returned to flight here in Canada. Unfortunately the museum went bankrupt and the project is now moth balled. It was for years on a pedestal at Ontario place in Toronto. Was removed and restoration started. I do remember seeing that very plane in flight, before it was grounded, and turned into a gate guard.

 

Then there was the Canadair North Star... Canada built DC-4 using 4 Merlins for power. It was much faster, but not popular as it was very, very loud. Pax did not like it.

 

Mr. Parks, have you witnessed Paul Allens fleet fly yet? The FW and the Zero? Your life's work....so impressive. Thanks for contributing to this thread! I really hope to visit the Garber(?) facility one day (Smithsonian storage). Aviation history has been the reason that I have travelled/worked all over the world....museums. Italy is next.

 

Faster, but not that much so. When the first BOAC Comet out of Rome suffered its fatal metal-fatigue disintegration, the pilot was in the process of talking with another BOAC pilot in an Argonaut (their name for the North Star) which had departed about ten minutes ahead of the Comet but was scheduled to arrive two hours later! That's why the wealthy preferred the Comet - until they started falling out of the sky.

 

Bob, we ought to make you an honorary Doctor of Philosophy, since we certainly enjoy reading about your tales about the "philosophy" of your life and times. Then we could call you "Dr. Bob".

 

Bob, Please have your life experiences transferred into a reasonably priced book...I would buy it. Your a humble man.

 

You can actually still buy Bob's book through Amazon, but I recommend that you get it directly from him, so you can get his very valuable autograph!

https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Set-High-Speed-Jets/dp/1503105679/

 

Will do. I will PM Bob this weekend. Thanks.

 

I bought my copy from Amazon... Maybe I could mail mine to him to get signed [emoji16]

 

Or do what I did - go to Seattle and have him do it in person! We met at Paul Allen's Skyfair event at Paine Field.

 

At this past weekend's hydroplane race in Guntersville, AL, some people were complaining (rightfully so) about the dead time between race heats. I'm suggesting to the organizers that they consider adding some airshow acts between boat heats. While a jet team like the Blue Angels (who always perform at the Seattle race) might be ideal, I know how hard they are to schedule. Even "routine" airshow acts would help fill the dead time; Seattle has so many airshow acts that it's become as much an airshow as a boat race!