Remember, this is the Air Force. Show starts early. Don't think you can
cruise in at 11:30 and still catch all the flying. The US Navy F/A-18 Demo is at
9:05 am followed by the Mig-17 and the US Army Golden Knights. Ed Hamill
performs an aerobatic routine right before the USAF A-10 Thunderbolt II Demo.
At 11 am the crowd is welcomed to the show with a flyby of the F/A-22 Raptor.
The F-117 stealth fighter is next followed by the Red Baron Pizza Biplane
Squadron (say that 5 times fast).
An F-14 demo is performed (boring right?) and then the Las Vegas unlimited
air racing display.
Filling out the show are the USAF Heritage Flight,
Sean Tucker in the Oracle Challenger, an
F-15 demo and the D-day Tribute. The D-day routine had many warbirds up
including a B-25 or two, a BF-109 and a Fairey Firefly. Flying clean-up
are the USAF Thunderbirds, the day's final performance.
This page is highlighting the props. The two main prop aircraft displays were
the air racing demo and the 60th D-Day Tribute. The air racing included the
beloved unlimiteds like Dago Red, Rare Bear, Ridge Runner III, Voodoo, Precious
Metal and Miss America. Also thrown in were a T-6, an L-39 and a newcomer to
the sport class, #4 Unleashed. You may recognize the name of Scotty Germain,
pilot/owner of "Unleashed". Scotty is the webmaster of Warbird Aero Press.com
and has put together an excellent air racing themed web site that is worth hours
of browsing. You will notice many pics he has graciously loaned MustangsMustangs
throughout the survivors pages.
If I remember correctly, Dan Martin was dogging it during the race but was
really sandbagging and towards the end, snuck up and passed everyone. We are
waiting for that to happen at Reno. Dan flies the stock P-51D Ridge Runner III.
During the month of Sepetember, this P-51 is a wolf in sheep's clothing as Dan
burns around the course in the mid 400's. Dago Red is a highly modified P-51
racer dedicated to Reno Air Racing. Dago has won the Championship Air Races
for the last 5 years, but in September of 2004, Rare Bear took first place
breaking the streak.
Brent Hisey in Miss America was on site at Nellis. Miss America is the most
recognized P-51 air racer. That red-white-blue look goes way back into the 70's.
Another P-51 at Nellis was Bob Button's "Voodoo" flown by Curt Brown. Certainly
the farthest from a war-time paint scheme, but if you get real close you will
see that it is done very well. The most modified racer has to be #38 Precious
Metal owned and flown by Ron Bucarelli. This highly modified racer has some
P-51 in it but much was changed to fit the large Rolls-Royce Griffon
engine up front with the two contra-rotating props that pull it around the
pylons.
The 60th year after the invasion of Normandy: D-Day is here. 1944-2004 is a long
time to reflect on. Some of the aircraft and veterans, that were a part
of this massive assult, were on hand at Nellis. Warbird aircraft flew the circuit
around Nellis dropping bombs (fake of course) and fighting off any enemy
aircraft that might stand in their way. There was a BF-109 present at the show,
but he was far outnumbered and did not stand a chance. P-51s and B-25s along
with a Fairey Firefly and a C-47 put on a show for the crowd that involved
many passes and a huuuugggggeee wall of fire (I know we've seen that before,
but it still makes you look and say "wwoohh"). The B-17 flew on Saturday but
lost an engine and did not fly Sunday.
In all, a very entertaining display of WWII power. The props have done good
so far. We've seen unlimited air racing, formation Stearman flight, full
aerobatics and the WWII D-Day show. Hmmm, can the
jets even come close to this?