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Dayton, Ohio, was the home of Orville and Wilbur Wright and is now the
home of the official
United States
Air Force museum, so it's no surprise that this otherwise insignificant
city hosts an annual airshow which is first rate. Not only
were there displays by an impressive lineup of rarely seen historic aircraft,
such as a B-24 Liberator, two P-38 Lightnings and a Curtiss Helldiver,
there were also modern rarities such as a display by two S-3 Vikings, a
U-2 spy plane and an F-18F Super Hornet.
In keeping with the centenary of flight celebrations, there were displays
by replica and reconstructed vintage aircraft like a 1911 Wright Flyer,
1910 Bleriot monoplane, and world war one aircraft such as a Sopwith Camel,
Fokker Triplane and Swedish Tummelisa. A highlight of the show
for many people was the appearance of all three North American military
jet display teams - the USAF Thunderbirds, navy Blue Angels and Canadian
Air Force Snowbirds. You can see most of the aircraft mentioned
in this paragraph on the Dayton Airshow 2003
Highlights page.
There was a very good selection of modern naval aircraft flying, considering
that Dayton is an air force town. As well as displays by a
P-3 Orion patrol plane, there were a pair of S-3 Vikings and the top high-performance
display of the show, by an F-18F Super Hornet,
which will no doubt become a more common participant at airshows as they
replace the legacy F-18 Hornets, and the older F-14 Tomcats - one of which
did a flypast and landing on Thursday, but not a full display. |
