Indy Transponder 02-APR-2014 1700z

Air shows: The new paradigm By JOHN CUDAHY  | No single American industry was as adversely impacted by last year’s sequestration debacle as the air show business. By the end of the 2013 season, more than 60 shows in the U.S. had cancelled as a direct result of the Pentagon’s withdrawal of all military support...

Sun 'n' Fun Opens 40th Fly-in with Biggest Numbers Ever - Aviation International News | John Leenhouts, president and CEO of Sun ’n’ Fun, opened the 40th anniversary Sun ’n’ Fun Fly-In with some encouraging news. “I expect between 200,000 and 225,000 feet through the gates this Sun ’n’ Fun,” he told AIN. “Our pre-sales are up two and a half times normal, and the campgrounds are filling up fast,” he continued. He said he expects 11,000 to 12,000 aircraft movements per day, which would result in about 3,500 aircraft on the field at one time...

Flying Challenge Cup Kicks Off at Sun 'n Fun 2014 - Flying Magazine | Flying magazine and Redbird Flight Simulations have teamed up to create the Flying Challenge Cup, a stick-and-rudder skills competition that pits contenders from across the country against each other in a virtual fly-off in Redbird's full-motion flight simulators...

Relishing Relics: Douglas C-54 One of Fleet of Warbirds on Display This Week at Sun 'n Fun - The Ledger | LAKELAND | A relic from the Cold War landed Monday at Sun 'n Fun. A 1945 Douglas C-54 is open for tours this week in the Warbird section of the event....

Scheme Designers Hosts Aircraft Scavenger Hunt at 2014 Sun 'n Fun Fly-In - Aviation International News | Aircraft exterior design specialists Scheme Designers is hosting a scavenger hunt around the display area at the Sun ’n’ Fun Fly-In this week in Lakeland, Fla. Players are hunting for aircraft with both a Scheme Designers’ livery and window sign indicating that the aircraft is part of the game....

Texas Raiders' 1945 B-17G Flying Fortress touches down for Sun 'n Fun International Fly-In and Expo - Tampabay.com | LAKELAND — The Texas Raiders' 1945 B-17G Flying Fortress landed Monday at Lakeland Linder Airport. The plane is participating in the Sun n Fun International Fly-In and Expo, which runs from today through Sunday. The plane's crew will be giving tours during the event...

Helmet Cam View of Navy SEALs' Parachute Jump into Petco Park Is Incredible - Bleacher Report | On March 30, the San Diego Padres opened their 2014 season in grand fashion. The Navy SEALs Parachute Team, known as the "Leap Frogs," had the honor of jumping into Petco Park before the Padres' home opener this year. Thanks to a helmet camera, we are able to see the incredible adventure....

Shell to sponsor Able Flight scholarship to honor Alan Henley · General Aviation News | Able Flight, a non-profit organization that provides flight and aviation career training scholarships to people with physical disabilities, announced today that Shell Aviation has signed on as a major sponsor of its national scholarship and mentoring program....

French Air Show - CJTF - HOA | Photos

Red Arrows land in Cyprus for pre-season training - Lincolnshire Echo | The Red Arrows have landed safely in sunny skies this afternoon at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, from where they will be training over the next two months for their 50th display season. The pilots and their Circus engineers – who fly in the back seats of the Red Arrows’ Hawk jets – set off from RAF Scampton yesterday....

Duxford D-Day Anniversary Show Participation * UK Airshow News - Flightline UK | The D-Day Anniversary Air Show commemorates the 70th anniversary of this decisive military campaign, demonstrating the vital role that aerial warfare played in the invasion of Normandy. The air show will feature fighter, bomber and transport aircraft types that would have been seen over the beaches of France. Confirmed participation to date includes Douglas Dakota, Douglas Skytrain x4, Supermarine Spitfire x 5, a Supermarine Seafire and Piper L-4 Cub x 4....

Heli-Expo 2014 Report - Aviation International News | There were some surprises in the new-helicopter department at the Helicopter Association International’s Heli-Expo show, held during the last week of February, but the big news this year was the crop of orders, especially from helicopter leasing companies....

WWII aircraft to fly over San Diego - U-T San Diego | Ed Davidson was 20 years old when his B-17 was shot down over France. It was his seventh combat run in the big bomber, a World War II “flying fortress” that was heavily armed but still vulnerable without fighter escorts....

Reddick World War II veteran flies again in B-29 Superfortress - Ocala | DELAND -- Joe Drach, a veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, had one word to describe his recent cockpit ride in the world’s only flyable B-29 Boeing Superfortress: “Wonderful.” Drach, 87, of Reddick, looked over the gleaming World War II-era heavy bomber parked on the tarmac last Wednesday at DeLand Municipal Airport. Drach, who is a member of the Commemorative Air Force, which owns the plane and is sponsoring an 11-city tour in Florida, had flown in on the B-29 from Orlando to DeLand in a jump seat behind the pilot....

Unusual name for a B-17 - spokesman.com | I have seen lots of photos of WWII bomber nose art. But I hadn't seen the word “potato” on a Flying Fortress before.

Behind the scenes with British pilots learning to fly F-35 fighter jet - Daily Mail | ...The first of the UK's F-35s – dubbed the Lightning II by maker Lockheed Martin – are at a giant military airfield in Florida’s Panhandle region, where pilots are practicing flying them backwards, stopping them in mid-air and reaching top speeds of 1.6 times the speed of sound....

BV-40 from Brengun * Let Let Let - Warplanes | There were many strange projects laid out on drawing boards and few of them were even released as prototypes. One of these projects was the Blohm & Voss glider fighter BV-40.  The desperate situation in Germany was the reason for making projects like this. Besides the few prototypes, manufacture of the first series of this fighter was started but destroyed in an air raid. The idea was to tow the glider far above a bomber attack, release it and the glider fighter then was to dive and in a single pass destroy a bomber with its two 30mm cannons....

Future-Fueled Fleet Finch * Vintage Wings of Canada | On Saturday 22 March 2014, a new era dawned for warbird operators across the planet when a delicate, lime green Second World War Fleet Finch took to the air in minus 22 degree temperature. Her pilot, George Arborpremo, eased the throttle forward as her tail came up and she clattered down the runway with the sound she always had... not unlike a 1938 Massey Harris tractor. She lifted from the dry runway, climbed up over the snowbanks of the Gatineau–Ottawa Executive Airport, over the bare winter tree line and into the bluest of winter skies. Behind her, in the cold crisp winter air, trailed a pale and delicate plume of whitish blue exhaust that was pushed by the northwest wind gently back towards a cluster of worried Vintage Wings volunteers standing on top of the snowbanks. As the Finch climbed...