I have only been to an air show once when Matt and I were first dating. I don't remember that much about it, but I recall it being fun. We tried to go to one when living in Houston, but after sitting in traffic for over 2 hours just to get to the show exit, we turned around and went home. (The traffic was somehow even worse past the exit!)
But when we saw the Joint Air Force / Army base up here was putting on a show this weekend, we thought we should take the boys. Then we heard the traffic on Saturday was as bad as the Houston one and almost gave up. But we planned our trip so that we would get stuck in the traffic right at a good nap time for the boys. We were ready for the worst!
Except there was zero traffic! We were on base and walking amongst some very cool planes in no time. How awesome! (Except for the no nap part...)
One of the first planes inside the gate was a B-52 Bomber and they had the bottom door open to walk underneath the plane. The boys did not appreciate they were getting to walk in what would otherwise be a very bad place to be standing!
I have to confess that I am pretty bad at identifying planes, so I wasn't even sure this was a B-52 bomber. Luckily, I happened to catch the tail of the plane in another shot and was able to do some quick internet research. Turns out this exact plane is the *youngest* in the B-52 fleet and turned 50 a few years ago. All the articles I could find also mention it was sent to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, so I guess several of the planes on base travelled quite a ways to get there. Lucky for us!
There was a C-17 flying around doing demonstrations and I am 100% sure that it was an Alaskan one, we have met several C-17 pilots up here. Plus it has an Elmendorf banner painted on the tail! ;)
On to the helicopters! We had to get a photo of Thomas in the pilot seat of a Blackhawk since he is named after a Blackhawk pilot. He wasn't too sure about sitting up there with all of the instrumentation, but he gave us a big thumbs up anyhow!
Henry, on the other hand, couldn't be bother to look at the camera because he was ready to grab the controls and start flying. Could these two be any more different?
I couldn't get a decent photo of the exterior of the Blackhawk because so many people were crowded around it to get photos sitting inside. But I did snap a photo of the Apache sitting next to it so you could see the skis on this landing gear - the Blackhawk had them as well. These helicopters are obviously set up for flying in Alaskan terrain!
I saw an ice cream truck and thought the boys would love one of those character ice creams on a stick that you always see. Except they were all sold out of everything except these popsicles. They didn't seem to mind too much that they weren't a cartoon character. I was kinda bummed though - those thing always looked fun to me as a kid!
Next we headed over to the C-5 Galaxy transport plane. I was thinking we would just pull the wagon through the plane, but the ramp was a little steep. So Matt hung back with the wagon while the boys and I walked through! I had been explaining to Thomas the other day that there was a plane so big another plane could fit inside of it and he didn't believe me. I was pretty excited to show him I wasn't making it up!
The downside to those popsicles we gave them? They looked like little goth boys! Ha - it was dark enough in the plane I didn't get a great photo, but the dark lips were funny enough to share even with some blur. Plus Thomas looked so concerned about sitting in the plane - I think he wanted to get through the giant plane as soon as possible!
I would also like to point out I managed to get them to both wear plane themed shirts! I had zero success in trying to convince Henry to not wear his new Star Wars swim trunks. Whatever - not a battle worth fighting...
As I got the boys settled back in the wagon, the loudspeaker made an announcement about the next aircraft, which neither Matt nor I really paid attention to. Matt asked if we should put the headphones on the boys and I figured we didn't need to yet since I knew the Blue Angels were last. Matt decided to just go ahead and put them on anyhow.
Thank goodness! The next thing we knew, this aircraft was screaming into take-off and roaring up into the sky. Matt and I had our hands clamped over our ears and I had to yell above the noise "Good call, honey!" We scrambled to put our ear plugs in while this monster aircraft was not right above us. What the heck is that thing?!?
Turns out, that thing is a F-22 Raptor *and* my new favorite aircraft. This thing was amazing!!! It was loud and fast and doing things that I've never seen an aircraft do. It's a stealth aircraft, but it was not exactly flying in "stealth mode" today - it was in full blown show off mode!
Before it landed, the Raptor did a few circles with a World War II era bomber, the P-51 Mustang. It was so neat to see how much things have changed in the past few decades with aircraft. The Mustang sounded almost distinguished compared to the angry and intimidating roar of the Raptor. Also I was a little amazed that the Raptor could pace the Mustang without falling out of the sky - I had assumed it had to go as close to Mach speed as possible. ;)
Last, but not least, the Blue Angels took to the skies! They were flying five F-18 Hornets at the show today, so four were in a fairly constant diamond formation and the fifth one was doing the solo runs by himself.
Thomas was super excited about the Blue Angels, the base is just north of town and they had been practicing their maneuvers over the city the last few days. They did a few runs that were visible from the daycare and all Thomas could talk about was how these planes were flying straight at each other, then went straight up like a volcano (with accompanying hand motions). He was in awe as the planes did their numerous fly-bys as such close distances.
The solo plane kept getting me though! The Raptor had stayed relatively close to the base with his maneuvers, but the Angels went far enough away you would lose track of them. Then all of a sudden this super loud plane was zooming over your head with no warning. Thankfully, they keep it below Mach 1 by staying at ~700mph or less. :)
Overall, the show was awesome and the boys made it through almost the whole thing before we started losing the youngest one. Not bad for accidentally skipping his nap time! The only downside is that the Arctic Thunder show is only once every 2 years. :(
Can't wait for 2018!