2017 Airshows
Brunswick,
GA B-25s
at Urbana, OH
B-25 Fly-Over the
National Museum of the USAF
SC National Guard Air
and Ground Expo
Dayton, OH
Goshen, IN
Tarkio, MO
Westfield, MA
Wings over Waukegan, IL
Colorado Springs, CO
B-25 Fly-Over at the National Museum of the United States Air Force - Warbird Photo Review
Wright Field, Dayton, OH - April 18, 2017
Fly-Overs
to honor the "Final Toast" and the 75th Anniversary of the Doolittle
Raid
Eleven B-25s arrived at the former
Wright Field on Monday morning April 17, 2017. They were on public
display the remainder of Monday and Tuesday morning. Tuesday
afternoon they all took off for a formation fly-by, and then a missing
man formation over the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
The fly-by and missing man commemorated the 75th anniversary of the
Doolittle Raid. After the fly-overs there was a ceremony in the
memorial park on the south side of the museum.
There were a lot of visitors to the Tuesday
morning B-25 display.
"Barbie III" had her gun nose open for
display.
"Betty's Dream" also had her gun nose open
for inspection.
The pilot's gun sights can be seen inside
the cockpit, with front aiming point mounted on the barrel of one of the
.50 caliber guns. There are two different types of gun sights in
the cockpit.
"Yankee Warrior" has World War Two combat
time from the Mediterranean Theatre of operations.
B-25 "Georgie's Girl."
"Miss Hap" was General Hap Arnold's personal
aircraft during WWII.
The runway down which the B-25s launched.
Getting to both the B-25 display and then to
the museum was a challenge. Traffic was backed up about a mile in
two directions to get to the display. In this photo I was stopped
while waiting to get to the museum grounds. Due to the large
crowd, vehicles were parked on the grass. It took me a half hour
to get parked.
Raider One - "Panchito".
There were some challenges
in photographing the take-offs. All spectators were behind an
eight foot tall chain link fence that separates the Museum grounds from
Wright-Patterson AFB. And then there was the clutter, which in
this case was the mobile control tower brought in for the event, and all
of the vehicles around it. For this photo, I wanted to capture, as
best I could, the first B-25 just as it was lifting off.
Raider Two - "Barbie III"
Raider Three - "Miss Hap"
It was not until I started editing photos
before I noticed that two persons had climbed up on top of one of the
storage buildings to shoot over the fence.
Raider Four - "Betty's Dream"
Raider Five - "Champaign Gal"
The Challenge. Lots of clutter!!!
The chain link fence on the left determines the start of the photo
field. But right there are all those cars blocking the location of
where most of the aircraft started to rotate. Then there is the
mobile tower, a porta-john, a trailer, and a storage building. All
of this restricted the photo field to the right of the storage building.
And there was also the chain link fence to contend with.
Raider Six - "Yankee Warrior"
Raider Seven - "Georgie's Girl"
Raider Eight - "Show Me"
Raider Nine - "Devil Dog"
Raider Ten - The PBJ
Raider Eleven - "Miss Mitchell"
The fly-over.
B-25 "Show Me" did the pull out for the
missing man formation.
After the fly-bys, there was a ceremony to
commemorate the Doolittle Raid and its airmen. The last remaining
Raider at 101 years of age, Dick Cole is the gentleman in the white hat,
sitting in the lower left corner of the screen. Due to the crowd
size, I was only able to photograph him on the large video display.
After the ceremony, there was a high-speed
pass scheduled by two B-1s. I left the ceremony early to get out
from under the trees in the memorial park to photograph the fly-by.
Twenty minutes before the parking lot was in grid lock, as many persons
were exiting after the B-25 fly over. Now the way from the lot to
the road was completely clear. There was not a single vehicle on
it. But there were still lots of vehicles on the grass that would
all try to leave after the B-1 fly-by. So, I decided to possibly
forsake photos of the B-1s to get clear of the area in a timely manner.
Once out on the street just north of the museum, I found a mostly vacant
parking lot. Pulling in, I picked up my camera that I had laid on
the front seat, got out, and checked the settings on the camera.
Looking up, I noticed two dots on the horizon. The B-1s.
After a couple of seconds, I realized that they were not going to fly
over the museum. They were heading straight for me, and the main
runway at Wright-Patterson AFB behind me. Things happened very
fast after that.
The time of this B-1 photo was at 3:15:22.
The time of this photo was at 3:15:32.
The time of this photo was at 3:15:34.
Due to my decision to leave the museum
early, I was able to be underneath two B-1s on a high-speed pass.
My time in the parking lot was at most two minutes.
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