Winston-Salem Airshow 2012

Hi Kids, For those air enthusiasts W-S airshow was last weekend, not as large as prior years, but still relatively cool.  Here's some of the action shots:

 No, its not an oil spill or a plane nosediving into the ground, it's hollywood's arrival in W-S.  Pyrotechnics set off during some attack runs of an A4 and an AV-8B; taking turns suppressing Charlie during a rescue.  There was later a bomb about 4 times as large.

 A B-25 (rides only US$425.00!) makes a low-level pass down the runway.  It's name was Panchito or something like that.

 Focus?  Bah!  Focus is for wimps!

Yep, its Panchito all right.

 A T-6 Texan buzzed by.

 The sole P-51.  Not a bad looking bird.

 Another T-6.

This strange looking T-6 has been heavily modified, perhaps for racing?

A Prowler, I think it's called an EA-6B.  This was the largest of the combat planes present.

 The rearend of the electronics warfare Prowler.

 A privately owned AV-8B Harrier Jump Jet.  Rumor has it the guy bought it from the UK, but that would make it a Harrier; only the US has the AV-8B varient.  Or maybe I'm just crazy.  Hey Kid!  Get out of the way!

An A4 Skyhawk, another private jet.  If you can afford the fuel bills, why not?

 One of the stunt teams showed up with two Yak-54's.  They are specially constructed just for extreme aerobatics.  Dig the tiger stripes!

 The two Yak-54's next to some Yak-52 trainers.  The 52 has become very popular here in the US.

One of the badboys of aerobatics, the Pitts Model 12!  Insane horsepower and performance, the most challenging Pitts yet!  And it comes with one of those commie engines that rotates the opposite way, just in case you worry about P factors and torque.

 The Pitts climbing.

 The top of the loop.

 The Yak's showing off.

Feel the G's.

 Huey Cobra Vietnam vintage helicopter cranks up for takeoff.

 And the troop carrier, the Huey.  The distinctive "Thwop-thwop" sound is the ends of the rotor blades breaking the sound barrier. All these dudes helped out the rescue demo.

The P-3 Orion, not busy searching for commie subs, icebergs, or hurricanes.

 A civilian airplane, not sure what kind, maybe a Taylorcraft or Cessna 140.  It's probably about 60 years old.

 The famous Piper Cub, in the color known as Piper Cub Yellow. Another design from the 1930's.

 The two choppers stage their rescue demo.  Don't know if those Machineguns are real.

 A C-130 Herucles.  Not exactly a new design either.

Fed-Ex turned up with what might be an Airbus, or maybe a Boeing 757.

 You could take a ride in a R-44 chopper.

 You could annoy the crew of a Blackhawk.

 You could wonder if some maniac flew this thing all the way from Sweden.  I'm sure someone did at some point, but this might be one of the ex-Swedish trainers based in Asheboro.

You know, old jeeps don't need keys.  Just sayin'.  Looks like a WW2 varienty to me.

 Amother Commie Yak-52 military trainer.  I think there were about 5 of these here.

 A WW2 era A-26 Invader.  After the war they started calling these B-26's.  These badboys were all over the map after the war, as the plane of choice just about everywhere; Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Central America, Africa, Korea.  If Uncle Sam wanted to help out in a conflict, you could bets these planes would not be far away.  The pilot even had the affrontery to gun the engines and blow everyone's hats off before departure.  Yes, 60 year olds can still be punks.

 The Fairchild F-27 or 227 out of which the Army paratroops jumped.

Hey, I got the name right!

 A-4 Skyhawk zips by at low level.

 The Harrier following along.

 Same again.

 The Cobra showing off.

Yep, those doorgunners are looking for targets.

 The sheet metal said "Willy's" so this could be one of the original WW2 models of Jeep, before they went all mass-market with A/C and power brakes!

 Another Warsaw Pact military trainer, either a L-29 or -39, both were made in Czech Republic, and for about $300,000 you can get one too!

 This looks like a T-34 basic trainer from the US AirForce.

Oh yeah, the punks pre-flighting.  Ya oughta be ashamed!

 Everyone wanted to get in on the act, here's a motorcycle guy flying in the air.

 The Prowler taxis out for takeoff at the end of the show.

 And comes back for a series of low level screaming passes.

 I don't know if they get to do this over crowds very often.  Especially since the Navy spends a lot of time over water.

The A-26 ready for takeoff, all the hats have been recovered.

 Nifty shot!  The joys of digital photos, you can take as many as you can and sort through em later.

And that's it folks, the final plane speeds off into the sunset.