I spent 10 years active duty in the Navy working Naval Aviation. The best airshows are on a carrier out in the middle of no-where. They do not hold anything back, I remember one airshow in the early 80’s onboard USS Constellation where a Tomcat and a Hornet did a low level pass on each side of the ship, and both broke the sound barrier at about the same time, pretty impressive
Also was impressed on how fast those old A6 and EA6b planes could fly, they were some ugly birds, but they could really move when pushed to their limits
forgot one other moment that sticks in my memory, the only airshow I ever saw at Pease AFB before the air force left. we drove in with friends and we drove out onto the ramp and parked (tailgating at an airshow awsome!) there were all kinds of demonstration airplanes f-15, f-16, f-14, (no f-111 even though it was their base) a couple of Harriers came in in formation did a couple of flybys and then came to a halt mid-air in the center of the flight line, they rotated in formation and then set down, one took back off and screamed out of there, you could have heard a pin drop! everyone was looking at the motionless planes 50’ or so up in the air, Awesome!!!
btus on a f-15 alot when I was in the air force we went to Germany for a month we had to trim the engines on open air trim pad and the blast fence was to low we burned up a couple of there old trees, they where pissed.We had to run them at full afterburner to get the trim right.it was awesome tweaking on the fuel controller while the engine was at full power
I am big airshow fan my self I have been to many airshows in europe and they are just awesome.
I did the midsummer night airshow and many more butthe best are the ones in the UK the Royal international air tattoo (RIAT) is the best so far.
I spend 10 years in the Royal netherlands air force working the mighty F-16 and now I am working the C-130 here in Depot in Utah.
I am also a airshow participant.
I work on a T-33 as crewchief during airshows I did Hill AFB this year and Nellis AFB is coming up.
So if any of you guys go to Nellis / las vegas nevada stop by the shiny T-33.
wow talk about an old bird, (T-33) so far the oldest jet I have seen fly was the collings foundations F-4 phantom, lots of noise but not as nimble as the current crop. I wonder if there will be F-15s, F-14s, and F-16s doing the airshows long into the future.
I spent 10 years active duty in the Navy working Naval Aviation. The best airshows are on a carrier out in the middle of no-where. They do not hold anything back, I remember one airshow in the early 80’s onboard USS Constellation where a Tomcat and a Hornet did a low level pass on each side of the ship, and both broke the sound barrier at about the same time, pretty impressive…
Oh yes. Served on Ranger (CV 61) in 1989 and was Chief Engineer of Kitty Hawk (CV 63) 1992-1995. I’ve seen the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels more times than I can remember, and they were always spectacular for their aerobatics, but the shows put on by the embarked carrier airwings out at sea were something else again altogether. Supersonic flyovers, and they dropped live ordinance in the water 1000 yards or so from the ship…like 500 pound bombs or better, and did strafing runs, and fired their flares (the things they carry to try to decoy incoming IR missiles). Amazing stuff. Sometimes I really miss being out there. Rick
I know that we will be flying the T-33 long after the F-15 and the F-16 retires.
The other problem is that the US government will not sell any of these to civilians period.
The faith for the F-14 is all ready spoken for and all of them besides the ones in museums are all ready cut up in to pieces.
After the problems they had with people trying selling stuff to foreign countries they took care of it.
The biggest problem with that was the fact that IRAN still flies the F-14 and there for all the retired F-14’s are chopped up or gutted and put in to a museum.
I was sad to hear that all the cessna “tweety birds” are being retired and will be chopped up and recycled, oh well you can still get an F-5 if you got the dough.
I know that there are two SU-27UB Flankers are for sale these are double seat aircraft.
Thornton Aircraft Company has several professionally restored and maintained Northrop T-38 and F-5 aircraft for sale. Prices range from $900,000 to $2.7 million.
There are all kinds of airplanes for sale L-39,mig-15, T-33 and many more.
The thing that people forget is that you need the right licences to operate them then the insurance,hangar space, maintenance/annual inspections, parts and equipment so if you lok at it it’s not something that you just do.
I am pretty lucky with this crewchief job on the T-33.
The airplane is easy to maintain and like any other 50 year old ......... you need to be nice to her.
ya I know what is involved in owning any airplane, I am an A&P, I would love a job maintaining something unusual like the plane you do, I work on freighters and piston planes. But I can dream.
