| Holloman
Airshow 2005 Highlights |
After a break of several years, in April of 2005 a one-day airshow was
held at Holloman air force base in southern New Mexico. Even though
this is a rather remote location and a somewhat short show, it still attracted
quite a following among aviation enthusiasts, because of the unusual selection
of aircraft at the show. This year people came from as far
away as California and Mexico, and in previous years people have even made
the long haul down from Canada for the show.
Much of the credit for this strong interest goes to the mixture of aircraft
which are based in this location. Not only is this the home
base for America’s only F-117 Nighthawk “stealth fighter” squadrons and
their attendant T-38 training aircraft, it’s also home to a number of QF-4E
Phantom II drones, which do their work on the nearby White Sands missile
range. To cap it all, the German air force also has a large
contingent of personnel here to support the training of Tornado fighter/bomber
crews.
Holloman certainly
has the usual contingent of acts which you’ll find at many America airshows.
As well as the usual aerobatic performers and parachutists, there are also
displays by modern military aircraft like this A-10 Thunderbolt II or “warthog”
as it’s popularly known. The display was done by a pilot whose
call sign is “Narc”, who is now in his third and final year as a demo pilot. |
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| A
simulated cluster bomb run complete with pyrotechnics was done by this
swept-wing B-1 Lancer bomber, which unfortunately did only a single pass.
It could be that it was doing several flypasts at airshows that day, or
maybe it just made the whole trip for this one show; either way, it’s a
good navigation and timing exercise for the crew. |
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| This
two-seat F-15E Strike Eagle also did simulated bombing runs.
The Strike Eagle is a fighter/bomber version of the regular F-15C Eagle,
distinguished by having a back seater who is responsible for dropping of
the ordnance, as well as by its large conformal fuel tanks, visible here
as the bulge behind the engine inlet. As well as carrying fuel,
stores racks on the tank can be used to carry extra bombs and missiles. |
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| Talking
about conformal fuel tanks, it was a real surprise to see this “block 60”
F-16 Fighting Falcon in United Arab Emirates colors on static display at
the show. This very same aircraft was parked on the ramp but had
been strictly off limits to the many photographers who had come to Holloman
from Canada, America and Europe in October of the previous year to attend
PhanCon 2004. As well as the unusual conformal fuel tanks,
the block 60 F-16s also have avionics which are significantly superior
to those in F-16s which are in USAF service. America received
its last new F-16s a few months before this show, and it’s rather surprising
that superior aircraft were sold overseas. Although not visible
in this shot, one interesting feature of this individual aircraft is the
installation near the tail of mountings for a stall recovery parachute,
used during testing of this model. |
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| The
block 60 Fighting Falcon didn’t take to the air, but there was a display
by regular F-16s which included this very nice and infrequently seen four-ship
formation. Unfortunately this formation was done during the
break to land, which takes place on a runway which is at quite a distance
from the crowdline. In fact all three runways are too far away
to allow for decent photographs of takeoffs and landings, but many of the
aircraft did taxi past the crowd either before or after their display. |
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The F-117 “stealth
fighter” display was a major highlight for many of the crowd.
In fact there were two displays, one by four Nighthawks which did part
of their act as two groups of two aircraft, including a head-on pass with
two Nighthawks flying in one direction and the other two flying in the
opposite direction. |
There was also a
simulated training flight with an F-117 together with a T-38 Talon flying
as a chase plane. Since there are no two-seat F-117s, training
is done with an instructor in the T-38 following the trainee in the stealth
fighter. Only experienced pilots are transitioned over to the
Nighthawks, the two I spoke to at this show as well as the one I spoke
to at the 2005 Nellis airshow had all previously flown F-15C Eagles.
I have no real idea why the air force thinks it’s a good thing to move
air-to-air fighter pilots to a dedicated ground attack aircraft, but it's
certainly a great act to see. It certainly demonstrates that
the F-117 is a larger aircraft than most people imagine, it's actually
about the same size as an F-15. |
| Apparently this
is the only time this display has ever been done, it's certainly nice to
see the Nighthawk do something other than a flat pass, and it's just as
nice to see the attractive T-38 trainer in action. There was
also a rarely seen four-ship formation of T-38s during the show. |
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| Another
real highlight particularly for American enthusiasts was the display by
German air force Tornado fighter bombers. These sometimes appear
on static display at places like the
Yuma airshow in Arizona and I was even able to sit in the cockpit of
one at the
Vandenburg airshow in California, but it’s extremely rare to see any
type of foreign aircraft flying in the United States, perhaps due to concerns
about safety and the bad publicity which would come from an accident.
However here they were allowed to do their thing, and although I’ve seen
plenty of German and British
Tornadoes flying at the 2002 Royal International Air Tattoo in the UK,
this was the only time I’ve seen a formation of them, and it even included
a simulated “buddy refueling” of one Tornado by another. In
fact this was only the second “buddy refueling” demonstration I’d ever
seen, the previous one being by Royal
New Zealand Air Force A-4 Skyhawks, unfortunately before I had the
equipment or skill to get decent photographs. |
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The Commemorative Air Force (previously called the Confederate Air Force)
brought three of their planes up from Texas. As well as the
only T-6 Texan trainer still in existence which had been used by the world
war two African American “Tuskegee airmen”, they also brought two other
world war two aircraft, one of which was this B-25 Mitchell bomber called
“Texas Rose”.
This particular aircraft was only ever used as a trainer in the United
States, but it’s painted in the color of a Free French B-25 based in Tunisia
in North Africa, which suffered a mid-air collision with another B-25,
causing
the loss of one horizontal stabilizer and tail. The other B-25
involved crashed, but this one got back safely, though with the loss of
the tail gunner, whose position was destroyed during the accident.
Another item of historical interest is that this aircraft has been signed
by quite a number of the B-25 crewmen who took part in the Doolittle Raid
against Japan from an aircraft carrier. Their signatures are
clustered around the guns mounted on the left side of the aircraft.
I was
lucky enough to happen across this aircraft at Alamogordo airport on the
day before the show (thanks, Roger!), where it was doing VIP flights for
people who had contributed towards the operation of the airshow.
Not only was I allowed to sit in the co-pilot's seat and the nose gunner’s
position, but we were also allowed to stand 6 feet from the side of the
runway as they took off and landed, and also to have them come in on a
simulated strafing run with us as the targets. That’s the advantage
of being at a small unregulated airport! |
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B-25s are relatively common in the United States, but this CAF world war
two P-39 Airacobra fighter certainly isn’t. This is the only
example of this type that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve only ever seen it fly
once before, again at the
2003 Yankee Air Museum airshow near Detroit. It wasn’t one of the war’s
great fighters, but the cannon mounted through the propeller hub made it
an effective ground attack weapon, and it was widely used in this role
by the Russians who took about half of all of these aircraft which were
manufactured. It’s a very interesting aircraft, not only because
of the unusual cannon arrangement, but also because the engine is mounted
behind the pilot. It was also the only tricycle undercarriage
land-based fighter used by the Allies, and had an unusual car-style door
rather than the usual sliding or hinged canopy.
I had an opportunity to speak to its pilot on the day before the show,
he was certainly no spring chicken, but very enthusiastic and he explained
a few features of the aircraft, such as the mechanism which allowed the
pilot to bail out by jettisoning the door, which normally opened forward,
obviously a problem if you’re trying to get out in a 200 mile per hour
slipstream! |
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| An
immaculate Russian designed MiG 17 “Fresco” fighter jet gave a taste of
what front line military aircraft looked like during the early and middle
years of the Cold War. This is only the second MiG 17 in military
colors that I’ve ever seen, the other one being at the
Yankee Air Museum airshow in 2003. Both of them used their
afterburners, which unlike modern day afterburners put out a rather odd
looking thin stream of flame which seemed to spit out the back of the engine.
As well as these two aircraft I have seen frequent displays by a MiG 17
sponsored by Red Bull whose pilot certainly puts on an excellent show;
however the inauthentic colors and advertising on this aircraft spoil the
effect for purists like me, though for most members of the public I doubt
whether it matters. |
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| Another
blast from the past was this F-4 Phantom II, which is actually a QF-4E
drone based at Holloman, painted in a Vietnam war color scheme.
These are the only Phantoms still in operational service in the United
States military and while it’s sad to think that the only purpose of these
historic aircraft is to be destroyed during missile testing at the nearby
White Sands missile range, it’s a good thing that this function has allowed
us to see them in the air. During missile testing these drones
are naturally flown remotely so as not to put aircrew at risk, but they
can still be flown by a regular pilot and of course this is how they are
put through their paces during the airshow. Apparently the
computer controlled guidance systems are even able to fly four of them
together in formation, but as you can understand no-one wants the responsibility
of having to explain an accident by large remotely controlled aircraft
at a public event! |
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| The
Phantom was the main motivation for me to make the long haul from California
through El Paso in Texas to this one day show. The historic
color scheme, and the chance to see the F-4 flying on its own, taxying
and in a very tight formation flight with an F-15, an A-10 and the Chino
P-38 Lightning made the expense, the long trip from California, the arrival
in Alamagordo at 1AM, the lack of beer in New Mexico on Sundays and the
getting up at 3AM to make the return trip well worthwhile! If you're
a Phantom enthusiast then you might also want to check out the
air-to-air photoshoot I did with the Collings Foundation Phantom II. |
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