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The Air Force's Fifty Anniversary Celebration
by Michael G. Crawford
You might be wondering about that anniversary, since the celebration year of 1997 means the Air Force founding was in 1947. But didn't the Air Force fly in World War II, or even before that?
Of course it did, but the Air Force then was known as the Army Air Corps. There are many reasons for that, the simpliest of which might be that for some time air operations were primarily only recon missions. Thus the U.S. Army were the chief proponents and thus the Air Corps became an element of the U.S. Army.
But some rather forward looking people knew that Air Power had a definite role in warfare, not the least of which was one General Billy Mitchell. The Air Force, despite numerous events which proved its worth as an independent fighting force, remained an Army Corps until 1947 when it was officially instituted as the United State Air Force.
Now that I've covered that brief and totally inadequate attempt at a history lesson, let me get to the real point.
Standing on the ramp at Nellis Air Force Base, near Las Vegas in Nevada, I witnessed what I presume was the first time the entire U.S. Air Force flying inventory was in the air as well as on the ground. Not only that, there were a number of excellent air show presentations that made for historical perspective I doubt have been seen anywhere else.
As my sons and I walked the heating tarmac, a P-38 Lightning and the F-16 Falcon, flying in formation, rounded the pattern and made a marvelous side by side, banked photo pass below 200 knots. A nice slow pass that took your breath away... the 1947 era multi-role figher aircraft flying next to its grandson, the incredible F-16, both attack aircraft of no uncertain valor.
We also saw the P-47 Thunderbolt WWII ground attack aircraft and the famous jet powered Desert Storm tank killer, the A-10 Thunderbolt (also known as the Warthog). Also in the air was the P-40 and AT-6 Texan, certainly major contributors in WWII.
Next, a P-51 Mustang flew side by side with its air superiority cousin, the F-15 Eagle. As a child the P-51 elicited awe and desire...now in 1997, the F-15 made similar pulls to my dreams.
We saw several other venerable air and ground attack aircraft, the sky being full of the new and old. And this was only the first event of the day.
Just to give you an idea, here are my favorites from the day:
The whole idea of showing the new and old flying together was extremely exciting.
Each event Cargo, Fighers, and Bombers, showed us passes of the old, then the new, letting us remember the venerable workhorses, and be amazed at the power and aerodynamics of the new breeds.
We even got a few bombs in...well sort of, the demolitions crews set off some charges as B-24, B-25, B-26 and a B-17 buzzed by our mock ground targets. We even got to see the combat rescue of a downed flyer as the Combat Rescue guys swooped in with chain guns to suppress the enemy troops while another chopper picked up or unfortunate pilot.
As the B-1B left the Nellis Area after its flybys, we all thought we heard the sonic booms as the Lancer went supersonic over the desert, her high speed pass an amazing thing to see from such a huge bomber aircraft.
The stealth bomber flyby was majestic, quiet and inspiring, the giant stairstep trailing edge of the wing showing clearly as it banked across the field.
The high performance passes by F-15 and F-16 rent the air with the sound of afterburner, and the P-51 and P-47 simulated dog fight showed us how it used to be.
The ground show included most of the ordnance carried on the aircraft, with much also available on the exhibit floor back in the Las Vegas Convention Center. From simple gravity bombs to smart weapons like the cruise missile or a laser guided, ratarded bomb. Even a blue bell was on display in the convention center, the BLU-66 30,000 pound (yes that's the daisy cutter), a weapon used to clear (overkill!) or create (perfect!) landing zones in Vietnam or to break the moral and eardrums (literally) of Saddamm's forces in Desert Storm.
Air Force Intelligence had some fun historical pieces from MIGs, some history on planes turned over by foreign defectors, as well as a brief on their usually "quiet" (or should I say hush-hush) missions. This included some cool overhead photos that made your eyes pop out..."is that a tan mark on that guy there"? Not really, but you swore the photos looked that close and clear.
But then I haven't told you about the flying demonstrations. Besides the aircraft demos like the F-15 and F-16, we were also treated to:
All trailed smoke and cut swathes in the sky, from high speed passes from solos to eye popping acrobatics right in front of the flight line. Photo passes had photographers scrambling all day long, and for once I felt I understood the rudeness of the photog as he stepped right in front of twenty folks resting on the ground to look at the display in front of them. Surprisingly, the photo nuts figured it out in record time and got out of the way without having to be told. Simply amazing.
A remarkable day, to say the least. We watched most of the events from under the tail of a giant C-5A galaxy, wide enough to drive a few Abrahms Main Battle Tanks through, casting a shadow large enough to shade some fifty or so air show guests.
Despite the wait coming and going, the day was an event hard to forget, and even the sunburn seemed to be worth it. It was nice to know also that we were among the most prestigious airshow attendees, the Chiefs of Staff of the World's Air Forces, a star studded (literally) General Officer gathering I have never witnessed before in my life. That particular piece of information was slightly confidential until the actual event, one would suppose for security reasons. After all, one nasty attack could have wiped out some pretty important officers in one shot.
The ground displays included proud serving young men and woman, from the brash and proud Air Force Special Operations Guys to the humble Air Search and Rescue types. Pilots in their simple coveralls standing by an F-16 or joined by armed guards at the Stealth bomber or F-117. One poor Major had the onerious job of commanding a training squadron which required him...somebody's got to do it...fly an Air Force marked lear jet as a training platform for quick familiarization in multi engine jet aircraft.
On the web page ( http://www.milnet.com/personal/cecil/castle.html) I make a comment about seeing my father on the flight line with an F-106 Delta Dart...it sat proudly on the flight line at Nellis, however, reduced to a target drone. Pity, I'd take the Mach 2 capable fighter in a flash!
But more important to me as the son of an Air Force retiree (see my dad's web page at http://www.milnet.com/personal/cecil/), was to see the acres of grey heads, the real Air Force of the last fifty years. I talked with Colonels and Generals at the reception, former Sergeants and retired Officers on the flight line. All had much to say about how things were back then and how amazing it all seemed to them know. Not just a few pilots were in the crowds, and most were saying things like "I'd give my left arm to climb into that!". You would have to look up to see what the Veteran was looking at, because it could have been a B-24, a B-1B, a P-51, or an F-15. Love of flying was the major emotion at this show, and believe me it was running high.
I saw a few tears of rememberance and smiles galore as the grey heads watched it scream by, perhaps once again finding themselves in the cockpit or back at that base where they tended to the flocks of birds now seen flying above them at regal speeds.
General Chuck Yeager, known for some pretty fast supersonic flying, was content to buzz us numerous times in a bright and shiny P-51, the high powered engine giving us all a thrill as it roared by. The SuperMarine Spitfire also joined us for old times sake, chasing a German WWII Messerschmitt ME-109 Gustav fighter recreating for just a moment the Battle of Britain. Later a Chinese MIG-15 jet fighter buzzed around with the Korean War hero, the U.S. F-86 Sabre. The two looked remarkably alike and it was fun to watch the them gyrate in the sky.
On the ground again, we saw a whole host of ELINT aircraft such as Rivet Joint, the highly modified "cheeks" of the EC-135 highlighting the long black nose. Parked next to it was the famous AWACS EC-135 with its huge black RADOME on top. We even saw an EF-111A Raven and RF-4 defense suppression birds loaded with electronic pods and Shrike and HARM missiles.
The older aircraft ranged from the DeHavilland and Spads of World War I to a PBY and C-46 Commando from the Burma and World War II campaigns.
The Love of Flying was so apparent, that the demo teams got caught up in the spirit, just about every team painting a fine looking heart in the sky with their smoke. The Japanese Blue Impulse team even piercing the heart with a nice little arrow.
We saw probably the slowest, a helicopter (an Air Combat Search and Rescue Nighthawk), and the fastest, the SR-71 (on static display, no flyby unfortunately...probably saved a cool $100,000). The SR-71 got as much attention from the crowds as the F-117A stealth fighter, the B-1B bomber, and the B-2A Stealth Bomber. The line for autographed photos for these three alone could cost you the whole day! Lockheed's YF-22 Advanced Tactical Figter was also on static display, its huge augmented and directional thrust engines clearly the leading edge in fighter aircraft.
And while we didn't see the vast array of the world's aircraft one would expect at say the big European shows, or the commercial aircraft at Osh Kosh, it was never-the-less, one of the best air events I've have ever have seen or could hope to see in the near future.
Wow!!!