Awesome Airshow!!

Last Saturday, I spent the entire day out at the Alliance Airport Airshow in far north Fort Worth. The one last year was cancelled due to Hurricane Rita, so I was really looking forward to this one. I had a blast! The theme was heavy towards the military which is just fine by me since I'm a military aircraft buff. There was also a great deal of patriotism, so this airshow wasn't for everybody living in this country ;-) I was glad to see my tax dollars at work in the War On Terror and the instruments used to eliminate a few "jihadists". ;-)

The highlight event of course were the Air Force Thunderbirds, but I was equally impressed and awed by "Tora Tora Tora" who reenacted the Pearl Harbor sneak attack by Japan. It was complete with fiery explosions, sound effects and great narration complete with air raid siren. It was pretty intense too as I had a front row seat. The flight choreography was daring as alot of smoke and haze ensued from the action. Japanese fighter-bombers and torpedo planes, meticulously and accurately restored, repeatedly straffed the runway while a Curtis P40 fighter (Flying Tiger) chased the Zeros thus recounting the heroic few American airmen that were able to get airborne and kick some butt.

Some awesome demos by F15 Strike Eagles, F18 Hornets, and a great F16 "factory demo". They really got the blood going too with deafening roar of the flybys which you could feel shake your innerds. :-) They even had a fully restored Mig17!!



I also got to chat with a few fighter pilots hanging around various fighers on display and an Apache chopper gunner. :-) There were quite a few aircraft on display that you could touch and look inside. I just almost talked my way into climbing into the cockpit of an A-10 "Warthog" too. ;-)

Anyway, I was just a big kid out there and had a blast...despite the horrendous traffic, summer heat, and scarce water supply. I can't wait for next year and am already planning a couple of road trips to catch some other air shows.

I've got alot of pictures online for anybody interested to take a look at. I think I did a pretty good job overall and got some great shots. A few are slightly blurred because my shutter/ISO wasn't set to catch objects moving at 200-300mph. ;-)


Here they are....93 to be exact. Check them out:

http://www.stevemillergalleries.com/2006AIRSHOW/album/