Re: Go to the new Air and Space

Today the LVPCA was fortunate enough to be able to see the home of the Thunderbirds and their museum at Nellis Air Force base outside of Las Vegas. We left from Cars and Coffee with about a dozen Porsches and a few other vehicles.

Enroute, seeing “double” GT3s closing in on me




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some more tail…
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Their logo with a better shine than our Porsches (they wax it twice a day!) and one of two dual seater F-16 Fighting Falcons. They use this to give dignitaries and celebrities and a few others demonstration rides. The full set of normal F-16s were in Bulgaria participating in an airshow this weekend. If you look on the side of the fuselage just before the ‘United States Air Force’ writing, you can almost make out the block of flags representing every country that the Thunderbirds have performed in.
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We did not drive into the hanger for this shot, rather were hand pushed into (and out of position) for the photo op. This of course resulted in the absolute best mpg any of us ever achieved .

Looks like you had a GREAT day. Cars, coffee, Thunderbirds, sunshine and top notch mileage.

I guess your pace of travel preceded you. Hence, they pushed your car in. Guess they didn't want two black rubber stripes across that Thunderbird logo.

It was a fun drive and highly informative tour. And you are absolutely correct, no burnouts allowed except from the jets on the airstrip

I spent a Little time with them on temporary duty in the avionics shop at Nellis. Back then they flew F-100s.

Two of my favorites:

T-Bird Vipers over the Cape



T-Bird Phantoms (greatest airshow fighter) passing Waikiki & Diamond Head



Go Air Force

[www.f-100.info]

Lawdevil
2013 Boxster S - Agate Grey,
2016 Macan Turbo - jet black
Cashiers, NC & Atlanta

Until 1962, the USAF flew an Air Demonstration Team called the “Skyblazers in the skies over Europe. In the mid 50's they used the famed F-86F Sabre Jet. During this time a new demonstration team based in the U.S. called the “Thunderbirds” had been formed. By 1962, with improved mid-air refueling, the “Thunderbirds” were able to make the trip to Europe for demonstrations eliminating the need for a similar team based in Europe, and the “Skyblazers” were officially disbanded.

My fondest memory of the Navy is in Rescue Swimmer Training in Pensacola. Lying on our backs , doing flutter kicks in the surf, with the Blue Angels practicing overhead. 25 years ago, and it still gives me chills

and taking a lunch break on the lawn to watch the Blue Angels overhead practicing for the graduation show.

Private show...all the middies were in class.

I was also lucky enough to have as a customer the Smithsonian when all the good planes were in the old castle and it closed to the public at 4. I regularly called on them a bit after that and was the only one on the floor with the Wright Bros and Lindberg's planes etc.

Wow, Heaven.

I went to the Academy for two years (Don't ask) and spent every spare weekend in the Air and Space Museum. My two loves have always been cars and aviation. I had a poster of a 930 on my desk while I was there!

museum and you'll see my family name on a few of the planes/missiles there. No close connection as my ancestors came in through New Orleans in the late 1800s. But fun to see. Some of the planes on display now were just out in old barns out on the Dulles grounds then.

My wife for a time worked at Dulles and one of her jobs was being a tour guide into the storage and refurb buildings for visiting tour groups or bigwigs. This before the U-H museum was built.

I was also lucky enough to work for a company who rented the entire building for a company Xmas party and ended up having dinner under the wings of the Enterprise shuttle. Since our company had provided/supported the pre-launch computers for the Shuttle program, there was a long term emotional connection.

The Wright brothers were the bike shop owners of the shop my parents used in Dayton.

Been there, done that.

It was interesting to see the Enterprise. I was on the team that did the testing and checkout at Palmdale in the 70's. You haven't lived until you are in the landing gear bay and they raise it to ensure that there were no hydraulic leaks I got stuck with the job because I was the team lead that did the computer modeling for the hydraulic systems in addition to the flight controls. Another fun test was the drop test from the 747.

Loved it up there -- long hours, extra pay and not LA/Orange County.

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190:

And I recall the cross country publicity flight where they flew the shuttle on top of the 747 across country from a West coast landing and did fly overs of major cities. We all went in to the DC beltway to see it fly in a circle around the city and, as it was early, it did another loop around so we got 2 passes to get pictures...then we all made a mad dash out to Dulles where it was to land. I think that was the only time I ever did 100 in a mini-van and I was only keeping up with traffic. I got there just in time to have it come over at about 100 feet as it crossed the road I was stopped beside on a landing approach. I swear it did a touch and go and went around again. As it made its landing and was taxiing in, the Concorde, which had just taken off, did an overflight of the runway the shuttle was on and, when over the shuttle, a wing waggle salute, then flew off to the UK.

On a Concorde note, I lived in Oakton which was right in the pattern for the Concord and we used to have friends from the city come out to sit on the deck and watch the fly over. Boy it was loud...and beautiful. For years, when taking off from Dulles and the path would take the pilot by the Concorde, the pilot was sure to point it out.

Fun to see so many have memories of the same things from differing vantage points.