[b]Cool Formation Shots[/b]

A nice mix of unique aircraft.
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Is that P-51 Sparky dressed up like a Tuskeegee Airman ? It looks like thier markings with the red tail and red and yellow nose band. Nice shots. I wonder if the P-51 was on maximum high boost to stay ahead of the F-86, those P-51's were such slugs, ya know.
Good stuff, Spasso.

 

Slugs my ass....the real slug in the pix is the Slobber jet. Unless its a Canadian model with the big eng. Then it be ok. The P-51 in Tuskgee dress is no more along with whomever was unfortunate enough to be flying it. Spun in, not a good way to go. The Peter38 is Glacer Girl with Steve Hinton up. Love the ramp shot of the black machines. Nice pix boys. Thanks.

 

Jeeze, another -51 gone ? What caused the spin ? I can't keep up with all the activities like you do, Steve but I saw several P-51 accidents at Sarasota Airbase in -44 and they were caused by sharp turning pull-ups that percipitated a high speed stall and the final tumble. Jes kiddin about the " slug" thing.

 

I know you are just kidding about the SLUG thing. Actually, a T-6 is a SLUG in the old airplane community. Seems to me that the low pass with a steep pull up has done in more 51 jocks than I care to remember. That laminar flow wing likes to go straight and fast only. It does not like to turn or bank. I have told my kid that there will be none of that type of 'look at me' type of antics at any airshow or any other time. He knows that I'l sell that machine in a heartbeat if he does. Then I'l have enough cash to retire in the SOUND area of Washington. Haha.

 

Those pull-ups to which I refer occurred when a flight of -51's joined up in echelon to land. They would fly over the active in the direction of their landing and do a fighter break up with a peel-off pull up, drop the flaps and gear and turn into a circular approach and land. The first guy to break up and out sometimes broke up and down when he pulled too tight to come around to final. There was also a game of who could pull the best tip streamers , like the F-18's in that Spasso shot, in the moist air there in Florida. A few guys pulled streamers until they met Mother Earthcoming up to say hi. It was obvious that the P-51 can bite hard when mistreated.
Yeah, Sparky, we're really rich up here. When you think about having the Paul Allen's, McCaw's, and little ol' Bill Gates and more millionaires per acre than any place in the country you wonder how hell you can survive. Lots of exotic cars and WW2 fighters and antiques up at Airlington airport. Come on up !

 

Ha! Then you can buy that 512TR you want and sell me your "old" '87 for a fair price.

 

How about the Grumman Cat Flight held as part of the annual airshows in Kalamazoo? I believe this one was taken in 1991:

 

Great shot!

 

What amazed me is that, considering how slow the formation was moving (a Wildcat, even balls-out, still isn't very fast), the Tomcat was able to stay in formation with the swing-wings swept all the way back, and it was stable as a rock!

I think the Navy is going to find, when all the F-14s are gone, that they are missing something. The F-18E is a good airplane, but I think there are probably things the Tomcat could do (especially with the newer engines) that Super Hornet pilots will only be able to dream of.

 

Agreed
I read that if they re-prototyped the F-14 with all of today's technology that it would be second to none across the board. The super Hornets wouldn't be able to touch it.

 

Heck, when I was at Grumman, we offered a "Tomcat 21" that would have probably been superior to the Super Hornet and would have actually been less expensive, because it still would have used most of the exisiting aircraft. (The Super Hornet is really almost a totally new aircraft.) The culprit was the current Secretary of Defense, some dumbo named Cheney. Whatever happened to him?

 

Thunderbirds in formation with a C-130J
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