Catching a Cool Sight

 So last Sunday, I had to go to my cousin's daughter's (so I guess my cousin), birthday party.  Before heading over there, I heard that the Goodyear blimp was leaving Ypsilanti.  I decided to head over to Willow Run to catch it.  I wasn't sure if I would or not but I was happy when I saw it.

I can't really call it a blimp as it is actually a Zeppelin.  Goodyear's current three blimps were built by the Zeppelin company.  While it is not the same company that built the Hindenburg, it is descended from it.

In 2011, Goodyear confirmed that they wanted to replace their blimps with Zeppelins.

The first one was called Wingfoot One and it was stationed in Popano Beach, Florida.  It was delivered in 2014.

The second one was called Wingfoot Two and it was stationed in Carson City, California.  It was delivered in 2016.

The third one was called Wingfoot Three (this one) and is stationed in Suffield Township, Ohio.  It was delivered in 2018.

The Zeppelin is crewed by two and can carry 12 passengers.  It can fly at a maximum speed of 77 miles per hour.  It can get up to 8,500 feet.  It has a range of 559 miles.

This is a Bombardier Phenom taking off.

Goodyear does not allow the public to ride on the Zeppelins.  It only allows members of the press and people related to the company.  Apparently, they have a contest for their stores on occasion.

As I was waiting for the Zeppelin to take off, Hairless Joe took.  I wish I had my longer lens but this wasn't too bad blown up.

A beam shot.

And then I caught a Sirrus SR22.

And then the blimp was starting to take off.  They could tilt the front propellers to help with liftoff.

It was amazing how effortlessly it lifted into the air.  I suspect the helium had something to do with that.

These look so cool in flight.  And given that there are only 28 of them in the world, that makes it doubly so.

I'm not sure these would have been viable even if the Hindenburg hadn't blown up.  Helium is getting rarer and more expensive to acquire.  There are only a handful of qualified blimp pilots in the United States.

The gondola.  I would imagine it is more spacious than it looks.

I had too much lens on my camera.

She starts to head towards Akron.

One more shot before moving on.

Catching a Mini Air Show

 As I was finishing dinner,  I heard the distinctive sound of propeller aircraft flying over my apartment.  Since I live fairly close to Willow Run, I figured they had to be warbirds.  I grabbed my camera and headed outside.

The first plane that I ran into was the B-25 known as the Yankee Warrior.

She is one of now five flyable aircraft that are owned by the Yankee Air Museum.

She was built towards the end of World War II, so I don't think she saw any action.

She was followed by the C-47/DC-3 now known as Hairless Joe.  When she was wearing Air Force colors, she was known as Yankee Doodle Dandy and I kind of miss that paint scheme.

Mainly because it was fairly unique for C-47's.  Typically, they are painted in World War II colors like Hairless Joe is now.

I think Hairless Joe is supposed to be replicating a C-47 that flew the China-Burma-India route in Asia.

Another shot of the B-25 as it passes.

And another of the C-47.

This time the B-25 was doing a climbing turn and it looked kind of cool.  It was pretty cool that these planes were flying so close.

And one last shot of Hairless Joe.

I was able to see the B-17 named Yankee Lady but she wasn't in a good photo spot.  At any rate, apparently this was part of a mini air show.  If I had actually gone to the field tonight, I could have seen the Huey and a couple other planes.  Oh well.

Thunder Over Michigan Air Show - Part I

So I went to the Air Show on Saturday.  It started out pretty rainy but ended up being pretty nice but a little cool.  It remained cloudy most of the day, so I didn't get to see all of the acts.  I took several pictures, so I'm going to break this up into groups.

 They had their usual group of re-enactors.  I don't know what kind of car this is.

 This is definitely a Jeep.

 The tail of one of the KC-135s from Selfridge.

 The Yankee Air Force repainted their C-47 to represent one from the Burma theater of operations.

 A P-51 that didn't go up.  I think it was supposed to but the cloud cover kept many of the planes on the ground.

 This Kalitta 747 started to taxi in order to take off.

 An Avenger torpedo bomber getting ready to take off.

 A sight that you are going to see too much any more.  The 747 and Helldiver.

 The 747 taking off to the sky.

 But wait, they announced that we would be getting a treat.  The 747 started to turn back towards the crowd.

 And prepared to do a fly by.

 I'll have to admit, this was pretty impressive.

 I'm not sure if it was empty.

 And it turns off to head towards China by way of O'Hare and Anchorage.

 A Corsair and Helldiver.  This was the Warbird portion of the show.

 A closer shot of that.

 An Avenger.  This is the plane that George Bush Sr. flew during World War II.

 A Helldiver.

 Another angle of the Corsair.

 Another angle of the Avenger.  These saw fairly extensive use in World War II.  They acted as torpedo bombers, ship attack aircraft and scouts.  Some of these were used to sink the Japanese battleship Yamoto.  I think these were used pretty extensively in the Atlantic against U-boats.

 A Helldiver.  This was a late war dive bomber.  I don't think it saw a ton of action though.

 the Corsair coming in for a turn.

 the Avenger landing.

 Then we got to see the Corsair do some stunt flying.  I think they kept producing these after the war and used some in air racing.

 It was pretty cool to see in action.

One more shot of the Corsair.