2015 Airshows
Titusville (Tico), FL   Virginia Beach, VA   Seymour Johnson AFB, NC   Halls, TN   Warsaw, IN   B-29 Air Power Tour Fort Wayne, IN   Thunder over Michigan, Bellevue MI

Wings over Wayne Warbird Photo Review
Warbirds at the Seymour Johnson AFB Airshow 2015 - May 16-17, 2015 - Photos taken Sunday, May 17, 2015. 

  For many years I have driven US 70 through Goldsboro, NC on  on my way to the Atlantic coast beach areas and passed the exit for Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.  I always told myself that someday I would take the exit and visit the base.  Finally I was able to this; and see the base and the aircraft stationed Seymour Johnson fly during its airshow.  In the morning while I was making my way around the ramp photographing the aircraft and looking at the displays, the Fourth Fighter Wing Historian was on the microphone giving an excellent history of the unit.  Not only was the historian most knowledgeable of the unit's history, but he was an excellent speaker.  This added touch which one doesn't normally find at a military show, quickly added to my knowledge of the unit, and especially the pilots that flew with the Fourth during World War Two.

Warbirds on display included an L-39, T-6, T-28, several Vietnam era helicopters that were trucked in on trailers, a P-51 and a rare T-35.  For this report I will focus on some of what I learned about the 4th Fighter Wing while I was at the event, the warbirds that flew in the show, and the combined operations attack scenario carried out elements of several military units.

During World War Two the 4th Fighter Group, which had been American volunteer pilots flying Spitfires for the RAF in the Eagle Squadrons, was formed and converted to the P-47.  This plastic Spitfire is just inside the main gate at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.

Later in the war the 4th Fighter Wing converted from P-47s to P-51s.  This was accomplished within 24 hours so that it could continue fighting and not be pulled out of combat for re-training.  It was the only way that the commanding general would allow the conversion to the Mustang according the 4th Fighter Wing Historian.

The 4th was the first unit to take F-86 into combat in Korea.

Today Seymour Johnson is the home of the F-15 Strike Eagle and the 4th Fighter Wing has three squadrons on the base.  This one was one of five F-15s Strike Eagles on display at the show.

Sometime in the future the F-35 will become the mount of the 4th Fighter Wing.  While I have seen F-35s on the assembly line at the Lockheed factory in Fort Worth, TX, this is the first one I have seen at an airshow. 

After visiting more airshows that I can count over the years, I still run into rare aircraft unknown to me and learn something new.  On display on the Seymour Johnson static ramp was this Temco T-35, one of only 26 built in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  The T-35 Buckaroo was developed from the Globe Swift, which Temco had been subcontracting the manufacture of until Globe went out of business.  Temco maintained the rights to the Swift, redesigned as a trainer and then entered it in the USAF trainer competition in 1950.  It lost the competition to the Beech T-34 but there were some sales to foreign countries including ten T-35As that were purchased by Saudi Arabia and were equipped with two .30 caliber machine guns and the ability to carry ten 2.75 inch rockets under the wings.  As one of only one of five registered in the US, this is a rare warbird indeed.  Robert Dickson from Concord, NC is the owner of this great looking T-35. 

Show time!!!  The show opener were the Black Daggers from Fort Bragg, NC.  

While the jumper was still in the air we had a nice four ship formation fly-by from the 4th Fighter Wing. 

Once the flag jumper landed, the rest of the team jumped. Here three jumpers have formed up and the top jumper is standing on the middle chute.  If you look closely one can see the middle jumper standing on the risers of the low jumper. This team in my estimation is more fun to watch than the larger and official Army jump team, the Golden Knights.  The Black Daggers are a smaller team and their routine is quick and precise.


On landing approach the lead pilot F-15 gave us a high speed pass.

Seymour Johnson has a nice set up in that all of the aircraft can taxi right in front of the crowd.  All of the F-15s were opening and closing their air brakes to say "Hi" to the crowd as they taxied back in.

Paul Stender of Indy Boys and his Jet School Bus were in fine form on Sunday.  Lots of flame from the J-79 engine warmed up the crowd a lot higher than the 89 degrees it was on the ramp.  "Feel the heat!!"

Tora! Tora! Tora!  was the first of three warbird acts on the agenda for the show.

I never tire of seeing Matt Younkin fly this 1945 C-45.  The noise, the smoke, and the large twin engine aircraft all combine for a premier aerobatic act.

Repeated passes have filled the air with smoke.  Here one can see the location of the smoke generator outlets and the volume of smoke they produce.

This C-130 from the Niagara Falls, NY Air Reserve Station provided the jump aircraft for Black Daggers for the weekend.  Both the 328th Air Reserve Squadron and the 107th Airlift Squadron of the NY Air National Guard share the same aircraft at the Air Station.

What one can see at Air Force installation like Seymour Johnson are combined arms attack scenarios.  Here is one of the many low level attack passes made by the F-15s. 

In burner.  Not sparing the horsepower.  And the Sound of Freedom!

Once the airfield has been attacked and neutralized, the Black Daggers jump from the C-130 in a tacticall mode.

A-10s from Moody Air Force Base were also part of the combined forces attack.

Into the smoke!

One of the main reasons I enjoy the military bases, besides seeing the joint attack scenarios, is to be able to see and hear the various military aircraft as they taxi back in.  The A-10 is becoming rarer are the Air Force attempts to remove it from its inventory. 


While there was more flying it including the USAF Thunderbirds I had seen what I had come to see. It was time to start the long drive home.

Titusville (Tico), FL   Virginia Beach, VA   Seymour Johnson AFB, NC   Halls, TN   Warsaw, IN   B-29 Air Power Tour Fort Wayne, IN   Thunder over Michigan, Bellevue MI