Thunder Over Michigan - 2023 - Part II

 They split the air show into a morning and afternoon portion.  I'm not sure exactly why they would do that.   It left for a long block of time in the afternoon where nothing was going on.  That was fine for me, as it gave me a chance to go home and take care of things and refuel.  But for people that traveled here, they got to stand around and twiddle their thumbs.  At any rate, I felt there was a nice volume of planes.

An F-35 taking off to start the show.

This is something you don't see everyday, a B-24 Liberator and B-29 Super Fortress up at the same time.

The B-29 Superfortress is famous for being the plane that carried both atomic bombs in World War II.

The B-29 was designed to be a high altitude bomber.  It was the first bomber that was pressurized.  It was also designed with the ranges of the Pacific in mind.  It first flew on May 8, 1944.

The B-24 Liberator was designed as a heavy bomber.  The first flight was on December 29, 1939 and it was operational by 1941.  Because of it's wing design, there was some issues in its introduction.

A B-17 Taking off.

A B-25 taking off.  With this plane, that meant there was a B-17, B-24, B-25 and B-29 in the air at the same time.  That is unusual.

The B-29 had a number of issues during it's launch.  The engines had a tendency to catch fire.  They also found out that the jet stream can have an effect on bombing.

The Soviets copied this as a Tu-4.  It had many of the same issues.

The B-24 Liberator was built by the Consolidated company but as the war started, production was added by Ford and a couple of other companies.

After Ford applied his industrial magic to this plane, there was one rolling out an hour at Willow Run.

Initially, the B-29 was used as a high altitude bomber but there were a number of issues.  So Curtis LeMay used it as a low altitude fire bomber.

It was pretty devastating in that role.  As the plane that carried the atomic bombs, it is considered the plane that ended World War II.

The B-24 ended up being a very versatile aircraft and was used in a number of roles.  Because of its range, it was used as a Naval patrol aircraft.  It was also converted to a cargo plane.

The B-29 coming in for a landing.

the B-24 coming in for a landing.

The T-33 in action again.

This was a pretty neat plane to watch.

I would imagine it would have had a field day with the Me-262 if they ever fought.

It entered service too late for that to happen.

One more shot.

Next up was the Corsair.

The plane was made famous by the series "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and was flown by Pappy Boyington.

Initially designed as a Naval fighter but it had some issues being used on a carrier so the Navy transferred many  to the Marines.

The British also used it and were able to work out some of the kinks.

Next up was the MiG-17 Fresco.

It was an improvement of the more famous MiG-15.

It was the first Soviet aircraft to use an afterburner.

It was also one of the first Soviet aircraft to go supersonic.

IT was pretty neat.

Next up was a MiG-23 Flogger.

The MiG-23 Flogger is a swing wing aircraft that was first flown on June 10, 1967.

It was the first Soviet aircraft with a look down/shoot down radar and beyond visual range missiles.

It was used by many of the Soviet allies and is still used by Angola, Congo, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Zimbabwe.

It was equipped with an afterburner and could go supersonic.

It is a pretty cool looking aircraft.

The pilot didn't do much with it though.

I suspect he didn't want to and that wasn't a reflection of capabilities.

I think it is one of the last swing wing planes left in service.

And a story:

It was sometime in the 1980's. The US was monitoring tower transmissions from an East German Air Base. The weather was pretty nasty and they caught a Soviet General coming in for a landing. The cockpit voice warning was a feminine voice. It was telling him to adjust his landing path. He was having a hard time landing. As he augered the plane in, he said, "Shut up you whore, don't try and tell me how to fly an airplane". From a book called "Dirty Little Secrets" by James Dunnigan.

A T-6 Texan landing.

The F-35s again.

The F-35 landing.

They did a demonstration with the P-51s again.

This time they had four of them.

This one was pretty neat.

The yellow tale.

Another thing you don't see often.

They had some time left, so they brought the F-22 out again.

It was cool.

It was even cooler against the blue sky.

Weapon bay open.

Looks nice in this light.

Almost getting vapor trails over the wing.

It is a lovely aircraft.

Not a view an enemy would want.

Coming in for a landing.