Highlights of the 2005 Nellis AFB "Aviation Nation" Airshow
The theme of this year's show was "Welcoming Home Our Vietnam Veterans" and
an excellent collection of Vietnam aircraft was put together, better even
than the similarly-theme Selfridge
ANGB airshow earlier in the year. Leading the way was a flight
of iconic aircraft from the Vietnam conflict, the ubiquitous UH-1 Iroquois,
better known as the "Huey". Three Hueys thudded their way past
the crowd line each day, including these two in close formation.
The iconic fixed wing aircraft of Vietnam was probably the F-4 Phantom II,
which flew with the air force, navy and marines. This particular
aircraft is a QF-4 Phantom II drone used as a target for missile testing,
nicely painted up by the air force in a South-East Asia color scheme.
The Collings Foundation operates an F-4D Phantom II in Vietnam colors,
and I was fortunate enough to do an
air-to-air photo shoot of the Collings F-4 earlier this year.
This OV-10 Bronco is far less well known than the Huey or the Phantom.
It was the first American aircraft specifically designed for the forward
air controller and observation roles; prior to this time conversions of
civilian aircraft like the O-1 Bird Dog and O-2 Skymaster were used in
Vietnam. The Bronco was far more capable than either the Bird
Dog or Skymaster, with higher speed, better protection for the pilots and
greater firepower like the machine guns you can see here sticking out of
the sponsons under the fuselage. It's very rare to see one
at an airshow, so it was nice to see this aircraft registered just last
year by the Cactus Air Force here in Nevada.
The Douglas Skyraider is a much more commonly seen aircraft on the airshow
circuit, at least in its navy or marine incarnations. The Skyraider
first flew during world war two, but its heavy load capacity and long loiter
time made it ideal for later conflicts, and it was used a great deal during
the Vietnam war. Here you see the one-man marine corps AD-4N
version, and the seldom seen four-man A-1E used by the air force.
This particular A-1E is one of the mostly nicely restored Skyraiders in operation,
the simulated ordnance provides a lot of extra interest, especially during
the type of simulated bombing combat mission which was provided at the
show by Chris Rainey and the rest of his pyrotechnic crew.
The Cessna aircraft corporation was responsible for the Bird Dog and Skymaster,
but they also produced a few aircraft designed especially for the military,
like this A-37 Dragonfly. Developed from the T-37 Tweet trainer,
the A-37 performed ground attack work using the six-barrelled GAU-2B mini-gun
which you can see extending from the top of the nose. Like
the Skyraider, the Dragonfly can also carry an extraordinary load of munitions
under its wings, which is part of the reason why it's still in service
with several South American air forces.
You might think that this plane doesn't belong in a Vietnam war remembrance,
but in fact this AC-47 gunship, commonly referred to as "Spooky" or "Puff
the Magic Dragon", is very familiar to people who know about this conflict.
Basically a world war two vintage C-47 Skytrain transport armed with 3
miniguns, these gunships could pour an enormous amount of firepower onto
ground targets, usually Viet Cong forces besieging a military base or village.
Because of the theme of this year's show, the pre-Vietnam warbird lineup was emphasized
less than in previous years, as was the simulated Reno Air Race which is
held each year; nevertheless there was still plenty on offer for aerobatic
fans and those interested in military aircraft from other eras.
This B-25 Mitchell bomber was one of the world war two aircraft which flew on
the day, together with the P-51 Mustangs "Six Shooter" and "Val Halla".
There was also plenty of entertainment for people who need their fix of modern
military aircraft turning and burning, with spirited demonstrations like
this one by an F-15 Eagle, as well as a display by its counterpart the
F-16 Fighting Falcon.
The Eagle put on a great display, including this knife-edge pass while in full
afterburner.
The Eagle was very good, but the air force's latest air superiority fighter
definitely stole this section of the show. The F-22 Raptor
flew at last
year's Nellis airshow, but restricted its display to high flat passes
and steep climbs far from the crowd area. It seemed that the
air force might be following the policy pioneered by the F-117 Nighthawk
"stealth fighter" and B-2 Spirit "stealth bomber", only doing tame routines
with these extremely expensive aircraft in order to reduce the risk of
bad publicity in the event of an accident.
Thankfully, this year's display at Nellis threw this type of caution to the wind with
an excellent display of low takeoff passes, steep afterburner climbs and
banked passes also with afterburner.
It's the type of performance which ardent aircraft fans hope will get better and better
as this extraordinarily capable aircraft settles into regular service.
The airshow community can be thankful that the top brass also allowed the Raptor
to participate in the air force's Heritage Flight program, pairing today's
top of the line hardware with their equivalents from earlier times, like
this world war two P-51 Mustang.
Since this show had a Vietnam theme, it was extremely appropriate that fighters
from three generations should be flown together.
There was one other Vietnam era plane which flew at the show, a Russian designed
MiG-17 "Fresco" as flown by the North Vietnamese air force.
It's great to see aircraft like this flying, though for purists like myself
it's maybe not so good to see them plastered over with capitalist advertising!
Of course the great majority of the audience doesn't care about details
like that, and the owner and pilot, Bill Reesman, does an excellent display,
as you might expect from someone who flew 320 combat missions in Vietnam
flying the F-100 Super Sabre.
Chris Rounds also does a good display in his sponsored T-33 Shooting Star trainer,
named The Red Knight after a Royal Canadian Air Force T-33 display aircraft
which flew demonstrations for many years in the same colors.
There were no Canadians flying at this show, but the USAF Thunderbirds display
team is based at Nellis air force base and always does its end of the year
homecoming performance at the show. This year's show included
a surprising number of overflights of the crowdline by solo pilots, but
the crowd loved the demonstration of what these aircraft can do.
A performance of another kind took place in the late afternoon light - the
first ever display at an airshow by the Predator unmanned aerial combat
vehicle, complete with pyrotechnics as the Predator did a simulated attack
run using the inert hellfire missiles carried under its wings.
In real life the Predator was first used in this way in Afghanistan in
2001 and again in Yemen in 2002. Nellis is one of the main
centers for flying UCAVs, so it was very appropriate that there were several
different models on static display.
Before and after the flying there was plenty of time to browse the huge static
display of aircraft spread across the show grounds. This year's
display was up to the usual high standard, with highlights including this
restored 1930s Dornier Do-24 flying boat complete with modern turbo-prop
engines, the historic C-141 Starlifter "Hanoi Taxi" used to evacuate POWs
from Hanoi at the end of America's involvement in that war, and an EP-3
AWACS plane. There was a sad looking MiG-29 "Fulcrum" jet fighter
near the entrance, sister ship to the
pristine MiG-29 in the Threat Training Facility at Nellis; the folks
from the TTF had a variety of hardware on display, including a scud missile.
As always, many of the most interesting aircraft stayed on static display
and only flew when arriving and departing. I wasn't there for
the main arrival and departure days, but several aircraft did sneak out
on Sunday after almost everyone had left, including this great looking
Grumman Albatross flying boat, which made its exit as the last of the day's
sunlight vanished.
See the highlights of the Nellis AFB "Aviation Nation" Airshow in 2004,
2006,
2007
and 2009.
