So it was the day that I was looking forward to for a while. It was the day for Airshow London. I had to get up early but it was totally worth it. Not too much traffic as I took the tunnel into Canada. It was an uneventful drive over.
Airshow London is a drive up air show like what Willow Run has been having. The main advantage of that is that I don't have to traipse over from the parking area over to the air show area. The main disadvantage is that some people don't pay attention to the people behind them and leave their liftgates up. The airshow started with the Golden Knights. Thier DASH 8 making lazy circles as it tries to gain altitude.
After a while, the first jumper came out of the plane. I think this guy was the leader of the unit.
He spreads his arms and legs to slow down a little bit.
The first jumper was flying the Union Jack because one of the acts was the Red Arrows. The Royal Canadian Air Force is celebrating its 100th anniversary. As a result, they invited the Red Arrows to perform and that's what made me excited. They played "God Save the King" as he was finishing his descent.
Next up was a jumper carrying the American flag. A number of acts were American planes.
They played the "Star Spangled Banner" on his final descent.
And finally, a jumper carrying the Canadian flag. Of course, they played "O Canada" on his way down.
Some of the other jumpers coming down.
The Golden Knight DASH 8 coming in for a landing.
The plane on final.
Next up was another act that I was looking forward to.
That being the Snowbirds belonging to the Royal Canadian Air Force.
They are officially known as the 431 Air Demonstration Squadron and they were formed in 1971.
Their home base is near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
They fly the CT-114 Tutor made by Canadair. The plane served from 1963 to 2000 as a trainer.
The flying part of the unit consists of 9 planes.
I like these guys a little bit better than our demonstration units. They do more graceful flying.
The planes look pretty cool too.
Doing a pass by.
I don't know how many passing maneuvers the teams did, I didn't get one of them.
A v formation.
A loop.
Breaking away.
Another loop.
A two ship formation.
They had to have a break in the flight to let this Leonardo AW139 fly out for a rescue flight. The helicopter was produced in Italy by Agusta Westland. It first flew in 2001 and was introduced in 2003. There have been over 1100 units produced since then.
And we come back to the Snowbirds in a line abreast formation.
I think this is a double diamond.
Another loop.
Breaking up.
And one more.
A KC-135 taking off.
Taking off to the sky.
Next up was a flyby of the E-4 Nightwatch. This plane serves as a command and control aircraft for senior military leadership and the President. In the event of a nuclear war this plane will be flying over the country and coordinating the military.
The US Air Force operates 4 of these planes. They were in a constant state of alert until President Clinton took them off alert.
They can still get airborne fairly quickly though.
It was pretty cool to see and I never hope to see in flying its real mission.
Next up is a Spitfire and P-51 demonstration.
The Spitfire served in the Indian Air Force until it was brought back for restoration. The P-51 is in a trainer configuration.
This is a later model Spitfire with a more powerful engine and bubble canopy.
The P-51 was pretty cool to see.
I like the bare metal color scheme.
I am breaking this up into parts because I have too many pictures for one post.
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