Back in September, the Fatherly One and I ventured to San Diego to attend the Miramar Airshow, and invited Naval Gazing readers to join us. Five people showed up, and a great time was had by all, although I personally failed to use enough sunscreen, which made the next few days rather uncomfortable. Still, it was worth it to see a great airshow.
John Schilling and the Fatherly One in the bleachers1
Miramar was pretty much the same mix I remembered of an excellent series of static displays (which for logistical reasons I didn't get to see very much of, sadly) and a lot of very cool aerial displays.
Static displays ranged from "Doc", one of the world's two airworthy B-29s...
to the expected Marine aircraft like this V-22...
to active aircraft from the other services....
to some more exotic stuff like this fighter squadron's fire truck.
The displays themselves were also quite varied. There were parachute teams from both the Navy and Army...
an appearance by the Red Bull team, which looped their helicopter...
and a demonstration of the F-35B...
which remains very loud in the hover.
Then it was time for Miramar's signature MAGTF2 display, with fighters...
helicopters...
and Ospreys...
landing ground forces...
followed by the arrival of the ground-based cavalry. There were no tanks this year, but at least the Marines were allowed to use their new ACV. It probably helped that we were well inland.
After the MAGTF demo, there was a remarkable demonstration by the F-22 Raptor and a P-51/F-22 heritage flight.
And then it was time for the Blue Angels to fly.
They put on their usual spectacular show...
in their new Super Hornets.
Even the immense difficulty of getting out of the parking lot isn't going to be enough to deter me from going back in a few years.
Comments
Why don't the footnote links work?
Because, as happens reasonably frequently, I forgot to drop in the bit of text that makes them work. Fixed now.
Typo "n appearance by the Red Bull team, which looped their helicopter..."