Rather than getting into the 100,000+ people crowd on the air base, we decided to set up chairs just outside the base on the back side, about 150 yards from the control tower. We had pretty good seats, but the telephoto setting on my camera didn't do the action justice.
The show included flyovers of the C-17 Globmaster transport, the heavy-duty long-range B-1B Lancer bomber, and the stealth flying-wing design B-2 Spirit bomber. Demonstrations of the A-10 Thunderbolt (nicknamed the Warthog), which are stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB, included simulated strafing and bombing passes.
At one point in the show, an A-10 flew in formation with the much smaller WW II F-51 Mustang. That brought back a lot of memories because when I was in the U.S. Air Force, my unit flew F-51 Mustangs.
The C-130 cargo plane, which is also stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB, demonstrated airborne refueling of two helicopters.
The T-33A Shooting Star put on quite a show, including some nice acrobatics.
An MV-22B Osprey, which takes off like a helicopter, then rotates the propellers forward to fly like an airplane demonstrated it's capability.
There were many stunt flying and aerobatics demonstrations . . .
Including a wing walker . . .
and a number of sky diving demonstrations . . .
But the highlight of the show was precision flying by the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. They put on quite a show . . .
They flew six F-16C Fighting Falcon's with four of them demonstrating precision formation flying while two of them were performing low-level near-miss passes over the runway and manuvers with one flying right-side up and one flying upside down. They finished with all six flying in close formation and performing a starburst manuver. It was quite a sight!
I'm sorry my camera didn't record these arial demonstrations better . . . but, then, as they say, "you should have been there" for the "Thunder and Lightning Over Arizona".
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