Indy Transponder 06-NOV-2011 1030z

Video: Blue at heart: Blue Angels lead solo Lt. Cmdr. Ben Walborn - PNJ | Near the end of his Blue Angels career, No. 5 pilot Lt. Cmdr. Ben Walborn remarks on life before, and after, the Blues.

Jacksonville air show draws thousands, but many leave amid cold temps - Florida Times Union | Only the hearty, the bold, the brave could handle waiting for the U.S. Navy Blue Angels to take flight at Saturday’s NAS Jax Air Show.  Despite brisk winds blasting out of the north near 20 mph, chilling temperatures that couldn’t break 60 degrees and low-hanging and gray clouds, the hallmark act took to the skies about 3:15 p.m. Saturday. The pilots in the six F/A-18 Hornets could be seen giving the thumbs up and fist pumps jacking up the audience as they taxied toward their acrobatic performance...

Cocoa Beach Air Show delivers thrills and chills - Florida Today | Air show goes on through strong winds, rain.  In a scene reminiscent of countless rocket launches, crowds braving gusty winds and light rain lined Cocoa Beach on Saturday, this time for the Cocoa Beach Air Show.  Except for the delay of the B-1 bomber flyby and the cancellation of a demonstration by the Miss Geico speedboat because of rough seas, the show centered at Lori Wilson Park went off as planned and even had brief blue skies...

MacDill AirFest draws 80,000 fans of flight and spectacle By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer | ...The MacDill AirFest opened Saturday under blue skies that drew about 80,000 spectators of multiple generations — kids, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents — all united by a love of flight and country.  Vietnam veteran Guy Love, 64, was looking for a Huey, the workhorse of that war. He was having trouble finding one. But a nearby B-52 prodded a memory....

Airfest: an aircraft aficionado's dream - Military & Aerospace Electronics | Kristin Hubbard will be zooming around in her F-16 Fighting Falcon as part of the US Air Force Thunderbirds precision flying team taking part in the 2011 MacDill Airfest. "I am really looking forward to it," said Hubbard, in a recent interview from ...

Video: Jacqueline Cochran Air Show Dazzles Spectators - KESQ | THERMAL, Calif. -- People in the east valley kept an eye to the sky Saturday, not for rain, though, but instead for planes.  The eighth annual Jacqueline Cochran Air Show filled the skies in Thermal Saturday...

Thousands turn out at Page Field for Aviation Day - The News-Press | Flashes of color streaked across the blue sky Saturday as vintage aircraft flew through the air with the greatest of ease at the sixth annual Aviation Day. The aircraft included an open-cockpit, orange-and-red biplane from World War II and the star of ...

Air show puts magic of historic fighter jet on centre stage - Edmonton Journal | Swept-wing Hawk One from 1950s is a star at Abbotsford event.  Hawk One is the last airworthy Sabre fighter jet in Canada, a remnant of an era when the Sabre was Canada's ticket to the space age, when farm boys learned that if you were good enough, the Sabre could take you to 50,000 feet, seemingly to the edge of space, where the horizon gives way to an indigo heaven and the earth is more distant than the stars....
photo credit: Hawk One Blog

Sun ‘n Fun: It’s More Than You Think - Flight Monkeys | When most aviation enthusiasts hear the term, “Sun ‘n Fun,” they instantly conjure up images of the Spring Break for Pilots – a massive Fly-In that unofficially kicks off the airshow season each year. If they’re die-hard fans of the big annual event, they may even have memories of stopping in to the Florida Air Museum located on the grounds of Sun ‘n Fun.  Like Sun ‘n Fun itself, the Florida Air Museum packs considerably more punch than most people are aware of.  Until recently the Florida Air Museum stood alone...
   
Travis Griggs: Reunion held for former Blue Angels - Pensacola News Journal | As the current Blue Angels team performs its homecoming air show at Pensacola Naval Air Station next weekend, a group of former team members will be on hand to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the Navy's flight demonstration team. ...

CAF fundraisers set Nov. 12 - Jenks Journal | The Spirit of Tulsa Squadron of the Commemorative Air Force has slated two fundraisers Nov. 12. From 9 am to 3 pm, “Wings Over Tulsa” will give visitors to the Tulsa Tech Riverside Campus, 801 E. 91st St., the opportunity to get up-close views World ...
   
Midland Airfield plays crucial role in devloping US airpower during WWII - My West Texas | Midland played a well-defined role in the defeat of the Axis Powers during World War II. However, the story behind Midland's involvement started many years before World War II began. In 1912, the United States launched the Battleship Texas, ...

WWII pilots recall perilous mission - Tampa Bay Online | ...We flew P47s over Luxemburg around 10 a.m., and were told to break up in elements and hunt for targets. We were recalled, so I dove to throw my bombs as instructed. I was flying "tail-end Charlie" (the last plane in a formation). When I came back up, I saw enemy planes in front of me. I called in to report the enemy and took off after them. I fired on one plane and he broke off and left, then another. I noticed my plane drawing smoke. I hadn't realized it had been hit....

Readorama | John Brown's mixed legacy; WWII pilot finds closure - Kansas City Star | Dennis Okerstrom, English professor at Park University, had been a pilot and flight instructor for about 30 years before he decided to join the Commemorative Air Force, an organization devoted to the preservation of vintage American combat aircraft. ...

RW French team during a training session. from Bonjour BlueSky

Jimmy Cleveland memorial - Centre Daily Times | Eighty years ago, in confusion or rough weather, an airmail pilot met his end above Centre Hall.  On top of the Mount Nittany ridge stand two memorials to James “Jimmy” Cleveland, who died May 24, 1931, after crashing his biplane....

Lockheed Shuttle Concept, 1970 from The Unwanted Blog | One of the more unusual Shuttle designs I’ve come across is this Lockheed design from 1970. Included as part of a trade study against the “STAR Clipper,” this design featured an orbiter that was configured very much like a subsonic aircraft. Straight wings, a very conventional tail and a rather un-hypersonic fuselage were married to a...

Rooftop & Floating Airports -and!- Rooftop Airports in a Levitating NYC, 1929 - PTAK Science Books | JF Ptak Science Books   Post 1652  (Part II of an earlier post on Rooftop Airports, here.)  Part of this blog's History of the Future series.  I really just wanted to post these two images before I lost them again. I've written earlier here about high-rise, in-town/downtown airports settled on the tops of buildings (or loaded onto newly-constructed structures over rivers and etc.), but these two images offer a nice distinction on the height's of elevated airports of the coming future.  The first is by...

Today in Aviation History – November 6 from Calgary Recreational and Ultralight Flying Club by bikeal