Afternoon Sunshine
White-tailed doe resting in warm sunshine on a November afternoon.
EAA Airventure 2009: Grumman F6F Hellcat “Ace Maker”
Ready on the flight line.
Hellcat in flight.
Hellcat after landing.
Great Warplanes Tribute Flight
A-10 Thunderbird II.
A-10 Thunderbird II in flight.
F-86 Saber, A-10 Thunderbird II, P-38 Lightning, P-51 Mustang.
During the salute to these great warplanes, I also kept on eye on the people around me. A group of four stood about fifteen feet behind me; two boys, what I assumed was their father and their grandfather or perhaps great grandfather. The grandfather looked old enough to have been part of the what I like to call the greatest generation. You know, the generation that survived the Great Depression, fought World War II, drew the line against Communism, and eventually led us to the moon. Some pretty tough folks to say the least. He watched these planes fly-by along with the three others, and when they all had their backs turned to him, watching the planes, he reached up with his right index finger and wiped away a tear.
EAA Airventure 2009: P-51 Mustang "Moonbeam McSwine"
Taxiing to the runway.
In Flight just above the runway.
The sound of a Rolls-Merlin engine is so distinctive that no matter where you are during this event you can tell when a P-51 Mustang takes off.
EAA Airventure 2009: F-86 Saber
F-86 Saber on the deck.
EAA Airventure: White Knight Two
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
To help you understand what you are looking at, I decided to include this You Tube video.
I had been at EAA Airventure about two hours when my dad pointed out that he could see White Knight Two way down at the other end of the airfield. I didn’t know it at the time because I’m not that familiar with the layout of the airfield at Oshkosh, but White Knight Two sat on runway 27 (two seven) waiting to take-off. We listened as the announcer on the loudspeaker announced Burt Rutan. The chief designer of White Knight One, Mr. Rutan quickly pointed out that he did not design White-Knight Two, which is part of a company owned by Sir Richard Bransom called Virgin Galactic.
The jet-plane portion, without the shuttle hanging from the middle, flew into Oshkosh Monday.
And much to my delight, while Mr. Rutan talked about White Knight Two, it took off.
Circled the airfield several times…
Displaying its power and beauty…
Showed its landing gear to the tower and then landed.
It taxied to where I stood.
Giving me a great look at this powerful jet…
with very beautiful nose-art.
Look closely through the window and you can see the pilot.
That’s the pilot’s hatch.
That’s the owner, Sir Richard Bransom.
EAA Airventure 2009
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
I had planned on two days in Oshkosh, which meant I had a pretty quick learning curve to be able to bring you some of these pictures. I’ve never been to an air show, so I had no idea the types of things I would see, stunts pilots would try or the sheer number of people I would be confronted with. Obstacles and lack of understanding aside, I have some really nice pictures to share, including parachutists, death defying stunts, impressive fly-ins, incredible fly-bys, and a whole lot of airplanes.
Since I went on Tuesday and Wednesday, I’m certain the crowds were thinner than on the weekend. Typically, whenever you neared a unique attraction, like this vintage World War II era British Avro Lancaster, the crowds thickened. This is a beautifully kept machine and for five bucks you could climb the ladder beneath the nose and take an inside tour of the plane. As far as I was concerned, the British had already satisfied my price of admission because this is a very rare machine. However the Brits weren’t done trying to please my need for historical aircraft.
This is an extremely rare P-40 Kittyhawk. Sold to the British as part of Lend-Lease during World War II, P-40 Kittyhawks and Tomahawks helped keep the British in the fight against Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
The primary British fighter at the beginning of World War II, the Hawker Hurricane.
Hurricanes eventually gave way to an air superiority fighter that maintains legendary status to this day.
The Supermarine Spitfire.
So, as you can see, EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with tens of thousands of people present and thousands of aircraft to look at, attracts the very finest examples of aircraft from vintage warplanes to modern jets. I’ll be posting more over the next few days. I hope you enjoy seeing these pictures as much as I did seeing these aircraft.
Waving the Flag
More shots from EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
And they jumped over the moon…
From the EAA Air-show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
An incredibly entertaining event that has included “The White Knight II” the privately funded space-plane project, also today an Airbus 380 flew in. Some say this is the air-show of air-shows. All I know is it’s huge. You could not possibly see all these planes in one day. From vintage bi-planes to modern jet airliners — the whole world seems to be here.
Something
There was something across that field more important to him than his fear of me.
Bryan/Harris H-18-LK-G Sailplane
If powered flight doesn’t seem dangerous enough, you could always try gliding.
Built for one, this engineless plane would be the closest thing to soaring like a bird.
Constructed from metal and foam, the light-weight design attempts to bring safety to powerless flight.
White-tailed Deer: Resting Doe
I also hiked through Lake Kegonsa during the weekend and got some nice close in shots of a doe.
She walked across the trail in front of me and then laid down.
The flies pestered both her and I, but she stayed and let me photograph.
On This Day, June 23: Hitler Tours Paris
June 23, 1940
Hitler takes a tour of Paris
On this day in 1940, Adolf Hitler surveys notable sites in the French capital, now German-occupied territory.
In his first and only visit to Paris, Hitler made Napoleon’s tomb among the sites to see. “That was the greatest and finest moment of my life,” he said upon leaving. Comparisons between the Fuhrer and Napoleon have been made many times: They were both foreigners to the countries they ruled (Napoleon was Italian, Hitler was Austrian); both planned invasions of Russia while preparing invasions of England; both captured the Russian city of Vilna on June 24; both had photographic memories; both were under 5 feet 9 inches tall, among other coincidences.
As a tribute to the French emperor, Hitler ordered that the remains of Napoleon’s son be moved from Vienna to lie beside his father.
But Hitler being Hitler, he came to do more than gawk at the tourist attractions. He ordered the destruction of two World War I monuments: one to General Charles Mangin, a French war hero, and one to Edith Cavell, a British nurse who was executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape German-occupied Brussels. The last thing Hitler wanted were such visible reminders of past German defeat.
Hitler would gush about Paris for months afterward. He was so impressed, he ordered architect and friend Albert Speer to revive plans for a massive construction program of new public buildings in Berlin, an attempt to destroy Paris, not with bombs, but with superior architecture. “Wasn’t Paris beautiful?” Hitler asked Speer. “But Berlin must be far more beautiful. [W]hen we are finished in Berlin, Paris will only be a shadow.”
“Hitler takes a tour of Paris,” The History Channel website, 2009, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6465 [accessed Jun 23, 2009]
