It's been a while since I've been to an air show, and the last few were at Edwards Air Force Base BEFORE all the 9/11 based security rigmarole brought security and peace to our lives, so my expectations were already at flight level 300 when I heard the Davis Monthan Air Show was going to be happening this year. I managed to flex my SimHQ muscle and got a media badge for the event which got me early escorted access to the display area and a more-or-less private area that had a great unobstructed view of the flight line until all the event staff started showing up and parked their cars in front of us! Well, there's some sort of saying about horses and mouths and gifts but even with the obstructions, we had a great show and I wanted to share just a few of the 800+ photos I took today.

Believe it or not, there was actually some risk of the DM Air Show getting rained out. We get probably 10 days of rain a year in Tucson, and one of those days just happened to be the first day of the airshow. Luckily, the rains were light and the clouds blew through by noon, but the first half of the day was gray and downright cold!

We call them strange white fluffy thingies up in the sky "strange white fluffy thingies".

In addition to the flight events, no airshow would be complete without static displays, and DM had the largest selection of static displays I had ever seen. I spent about three hours going up and down four rows of them only to find out I missed out on more than half of the displays! I know where I'll be spending most of tomorrow!

This view shows less than one quarter of the static displays available.

Here's an F22 that was closely guarded at all times.

The guys in green on the left of the photo have guns. Big guns.

Since DM is the undisputed Home of the Hawg, there were more than plenty Warthogs around to gawk at.

So...pretty...must...not...climb...in...cockpit...and...start...engines...

Here's an obligatory shot down the barrels of a GAU-8.

Bam!

Our neighbors from across the pond were showcasing their Tornados which had the greasy grimy look of a real airplane, which I somehow appreciated. Airshow aircraft are often way too clean to be believable, in my humble opinion.

DCS A-10C pilots should recognize the centerline store.

At almost every static display, personnel were on hand to answer questions or just jaw about aviation. The Brits at the Tornados were too busy for me to ask what the heck this particular item was. I suspect it's an ECM pod of some sort: any guesses?

Is it a rocket from a GI Joe tank?

One of the scheduled events was a series of RC aircraft flight. Due to the weather they were grounded for the day, but they made a nice static display as backup.

One pretty Jug.

RC airplanes normally don't excite me too much, but when I saw this particular model being worked on, I knew I wanted to see it fly.

"Let's see...so I know I plug the CICU into the IFFCC and the EGI connects there, but where does this NMSP cable go?"

One of the F/A-18A Hornets (not the Supers) on display had a platform so folks could walk up and see the cockpit. I'll see if the pilot will let me sit in the seat tomorrow.

"This lever here is a doohickey, while this button activates the thingamabob."

Of course they had Falcons at the show, this one being one of the local species frequently spotted in the area.

So...pretty...must...not...climb...in...cockpit...and...start...engines...

Older aircraft made up a significant part of the display as well, including this extremely well maintined TBM-3.

THIS plane made carrier takeoffs and landings?! It's so huge!

You can't have an airshow without a P-51 with lots of chrome on it, and Lady Alice here certainly didn't disappoint.


There was a trio of T-34As with a group from the Red Star Pilots who hail from nearby Phoenix. Turns out they do formation flight "clinics" from an airfield not terribly far from where I live. Who knows, maybe SimHQ will have a "How I Learned To Fly Formation" article here soon!

This is me trying to be artsy.

The first event of the day was the recognition of handful of very young pilots-to-be in the Wright Flight Program. The kids pictured in this photo landed at the airbase in three different trainer aircraft. There were more children than aircraft, so I'm assuming this was some sort of introductory flight, but what a great experience - something they'll remember for the rest of their lives.

Say "cheese!"

The token this-isn't-an-airplane-but-it-still-belongs-at-an-airshow event was the jet powered RocketBilly truck ("Pyro") which boasts a Westinghouse J34-WE-48 turbojet engine, complete with an afterburner! If that isn't enough "ooo!aaa!" for ya, they also added smoke generators and flamethrowers in the exhaust stacks. The truck is supposed to be able to get up to 300mph, but runway conditions prohibited anything more than a leisurely drive by while spewing smoke, flame, and at least a full degree celsius of Global Warming.


This Steerman from Tombstone Riders flew some neat maneuvers but hinted that they'd be back later in the day with a person in the empty structure on top of the wings (not seen in this picture). I didn't see them back, but we might see some wing walking tomorrow!


The B2 is always a crowd pleaser, but this particular B2, The Spirit of Arizona, was particularly welcome.

You can almost tell if this is a boy plane or a girl plane in this pic!

A B1B Lancer also graced our airspace with a few passes, including this final full afterburner "unrestricted climb" pass up to 15,000 feet! The climb actually brought him into a cloud bank which was quite dramatic (and of course, I didn't catch it).

You smell that? Smells like someone lit their Mach on fire.

Ever since I started picking up formation flying in the sims, I've begun to really appreciate real formation flying. Here a four-ship of CJs passes by in diamond formation making a great photo op. The flight made several passes in different formations and was quite professionally executed.


The highlight of the show today, in my opinion, was the well choreographed "CSAR", that had a ground convoy, four A-10s, two F-16s, two HH-60 Pavehawks, and a KC-130 tanker demonstrate a combat search and rescue mission. The execution was quite intricate, including a three vehicle convoy that got blasted by an IED. There was a real explosion, smoke started issuing from the lead vehicle, and the crew all hopped out as if they were defending their area.


Over the PA system we heard the convoy call for help and a medevac, since one of the crew was injured. As the "exfil" team comes in to save the day, a group of white trucks with bed-mounted guns shows up and opens fire on the convoy. The ground crew all pours out and takes defensive positions and tries to suppress the enemy. All the while, comms over the PA are kicking up.
Suddenly the A-10s rush in to save the day and make mock gun passes on the enemy, cueing he Hollywood flames and explosions.

Cleared hot!

Kapow! Kapew! Kaboom!

Enemy suppressed, the pair of HH-60s sweep in and, with dramatic speed, drop pararescue men who rush in to secure the wounded crewman and prepare him for transport.


Rescuers inbound.

Injured dude (or dudette) being hoisted onboard.


Mission complete, heading for home.

The A-10/P-51 heritage flights are always special to me. They represent the significant history of the US Air Force using two very symbolic and reknown aircraft.


After most flight events, the pilots involved will come up to the "autograph tent" (just a fenced off area) for Q&A and autographs from the pilots. I took the opportunity to talk with the Heritage Flight pilots about the maneuver and learned they fly close finger 4 at 240 knots and the A-10 pilots lines up the P-51's wingtip with the spinner and the sights through the rudder/horizontal stablizer for his sight picture. Cool, eh?

Here is the Hawg in its natural habitat. This was the Weapons team display where they gave demonstrations of how they load wepaonry onto the A-10, including big bombs and 30mm ammo using The Dragon.


I love getting up close and personal with technology and walking away with pictures like this:


The V22 Osprey is another crowd pleaser - I'm always amazed at just how large this aircraft really is! Unfortunately, by this time, the runway view from our media booth was completely obscured and I missed a number of good photo ops of the V-22 doing low maneuvers.



Can't wait for tomorrow!

Excellent pictures. That looked like a "proper" airshow. I haven't been to one for some time because a) the prices are considerably high for the family and b) they are always massively busy.

My local airshow place is Duxford (there were some US bases in Suffolk that done them, but they stopped after 9/11 I believe) and I generally go there when there aren't airshows on because it's quite quiet...but I do miss a good airshow.

I love (as Isuspect everyone will) the P-51 and the A-10 together.

And is it just me - or does anyone else think the F-22/35A/35C are butt uglies? What kind of ordinance can they carry - as any pics I ever see of them, they have the obligatory 2 AA missiles on the wings

Thx - great pics.

awesome!

Because the ordnance is carried internally in the belly of the jet.

Great pics!

That's a Marconi Sky Shadow ECM pod on the Tornado I think.

Oh man, i envy you, beautiful pictures!

Very nice pictures!

Very cool shots! Any idea what the rotary dial does on that CBU?

Also, speaking of starting plane engines, are there any special precautions (other than closing the canopy) taken at airshows to prevent people from meddling with switches (that's probably a preflight item) or from uber Hawg geeks from doing anything funky in the jet?

Wow! Wish there was an airshow of that quality closer to home.

We agree on the F-35's being ugly, but the Raptor is sleek in my opinion. Unfortunately, the age of sexy military birds is coming to a close, as curvy jets like the F-16 come with a massive radar cross-section

Nice pics!

It sounds like I'm in the minority in thinking the F-35s look OK. I think they look mean from the front, in particular. The F-22 looks better, and it improved a lot from it's YF-22 days, but still can't hold a candle to the YF-23.

On the F-16s, the Have Glass program is adding a radar-absorbent coating to it, similar to the F-35's, I believe. I've always wondered if the air intake being kind of flat and under the nose helped block the compressor blades from radar. I think it has kind of an S-shaped intake due to the positioning.

Cool pictures.


Wheels

Simply put, bloody amazing piccies !! Thanks for the effort you guys put into making this site so great

I'm really not up on the radar cross section thingy - I have no idea why an F16 has a larger radar cross section (whatever that is - I guess it's what's fed back to the radar) than an F22 or F35. To me they both look like big hulks that a radar signal would bounce off. I can understand why an "absorbent" skin may reduce radar signature - but why an F-16 gives a bigger signature than a F35 with sharp lines??

Anyway - I thought the F22 WAS the F35 - I'm going to look at some piccies now.

Awesome, thanks for sharing!

Pin the battery and hide the Remove Before Flight flag inside the panel so folks won't know about it. Or disconnect the battery altogether.

Actually canopies are almost never left open for static displays and nobody is allowed to climb in. If there is an open canopy with a stand for close up looks, there's always an airman or pilot sitting on the stand to answer questions...and keep the cockpit secure.

Great pics Einstein! Oh, and what do you consider cold? People were in jackets while it was in the lower 70Fs while I was there in February...lol.

Just came home from day 2 and need to process and select the pics - probably not happening tonight.

@BillyRiley, all the air shows I've been to were free admission. This show here at DM beat the Edwards Show by a good margin in terms of the sheer number of static aircraft and aircrew on hand to answer questions and comments. It was too darn big, though - two days, even all day, was only enough to cover half the show. I missed out on a lot of good displays just because there wasn't time. Even if there wasn't the awesome string of flight events, the static displays literally stretch out for miles! Can't wait for the show to come back in a couple of years.

Also, I like the look of the Lockheed "stealthy" aircraft. Certainly beats the Boeing "Gaping Duck" that didn't make the JSF cut, IMHO.

@Weasel_Keeper, in Tucson, anything lower than 75°F and we're bundling up! But it was low 50's with rain and wind, which is about 20°F NHE (Normal Human Equivalent). I'm surprised there weren't more cases of hypothermia reported.

I'm pretty certain that's an ECM pod on the Tornado. Looks like (though slightly modified) the ones developed at SAAB Aerotech in Sweden. I was recently there and they had dozens of those big thingies. IIRC they also act as chaff dispensers (through lots of holes in the back, which aren't showing in the picture).