| Kern
County Airshow 2004 Highlights |
The Kern County airshow was supposed to start at 1 o'clock, so I took my
own sweet time to get my equipment ready when I arrived in the parking
lot at 11:30. I had just started to walk toward the entrance
when a very unusual looking jet zoomed past. With a delta wing
and canards just behind the engine intakes I thought it might be a Swedish
Saab, perhaps a Viggen or a Gripen. I moved closer as quickly
as I could and managed to get this shot on its third pass.
This is an Israeli Kfir "lion cub", a significantly modified version of
the French Mirage 5, a plane which was built in Israel even though the
French had an arms embargo against Israel and therefore wouldn't give them
a manufacturing license. This required a certain amount of
behind the scenes effort by the Israelis in order to obtain blueprints
and other technical information. The US Navy and the US Marines
leased 25 Kfirs for three or four years and operated them as F-21s to simulate
enemy aircraft during "Red Flag" combat training. This particular
aircraft is operated by the American civilian company ATAC (Airborne
Tactical Advantage Company), and is used for training of American military
personnel.
Kfirs have also been sold to Colombia and Ecuador. It's capable of
Mach 2.3, largely because of the more powerful American engine which replaced
the original French design. The new engine required modifications
to the air intakes and fuselage, and you can also see the air scoops just
in front of the tail which were added to provide cooling for the afterburner. |
 |
| Another
aircraft which wasn't on the list of performers turned up less than 5 minutes
after the Kfir, a T-33 Shooting Star jet. This aircraft was
the trainer version of America's first jet fighter, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting
Star, which later became the F-80. The F-80, with its unsophisticated
straight wings and tail surfaces, was soon outclassed by swept-wing jets
like the American F-86 Sabre and the Russian MiG 15 but the T-33, which
was affectionately called the T-bird, continued in service for many years,
both with the United States Air Force and with foreign military forces.
Over 7000 T-33s were eventually built, compared to just over 1700 P-80s.
This T-33 was flying in so it could go on static display, and in fact I
had to temporarily move my chair and myself out of the way so it could
be parked. |
 |
| The
Kern County airshow is not in the major leagues, so the only reason that
I made the 380 mile (610 kilometer) round trip was to see an aircraft which
is very rarely displayed, an EA-6B Prowler, the electronic warfare version
of the now retired A-6 Intruder attack plane. I was destined
to be disappointed, just as I had been four days earlier at the
Prescott Air Show, but just as at Prescott, other aircraft made up
for the absence of the plane I'd come to see. The Kfir was
an extraordinary bonus, as was the T-33, and here's another - a B-52 Stratofortress,
which first flew in 1952 and is currently scheduled to remain in service
until 2040, even though the last one was built in 1962! The
Stratofortress is quite a common sight on static display at American airshows,
but after attending well over 20 airshows in the United States, this is
the first time I've ever seen it flying here (though I did see one do a
display in England at the Royal International Air Tattoo in 2002, with
the added bonus that it took off in front of the crowd, did its display
and then landed, complete with parachute-assisted braking.
Of course, since this was England, all of this was done under an unattractive
thick grey overcast). |
 |
| This
AV-8B Harrier vertical takeoff and landing attack plane is a much more
intriguing and innovative piece of technology than the Stratofortress,
but I've seen it hover and roar at so many shows that I've almost entirely
lost interest in it! If you're still fascinated by it then
you might want to check out these photos of it at Oshkosh
in 2002 and Prescott
in 2004 (both these pages will open in a new window). |
 |
| This
F/A-18F Super Hornet did the feeblest display I've ever seen by this type
of aircraft, a single high-speed pass, before vanishing off into the distance.
OK, I know, I'm a spoiled brat and I should be grateful just for a glimpse
of this incredible aircraft, since this brief view would be the dream of
aviation enthusiasts from most countries around the world.
But perhaps you'll understand my feelings if you take a look at this Super
Hornet display at Dayton in 2003, or this cool Super
Hornet pass with a vapor cone which happened at the Point Mugu airshow
a few weeks earlier. |
 |
| The
orientation of the airfield and the timing of the show meant that the sun
soon swung around to the far side of the airfield and made photography
difficult. Despite paying a ten dollar entrance fee, I packed
up my folding chair and abandoned the airport, walking around to the road
running past the end of the runway. Here I spent the next three
and a half hours, on a dirt strip between the highway and the airport fence.
This inelegant setting not only provided much better lighting for photography,
but it also gave much better angles on the aircraft, such as this shot
of a Czechoslovakian Aero Vodochody L29 Delfin, which was a jet trainer
used by the Soviets. |
 |
| My
new location also had a much better view of the runway than the rest of
the audience was getting, though the amount of heat haze made it difficult
to get clear photos. This is aerobatic pilot Mike Mangold taking
off in his Zivko Edge 540. |
 |
| Here's
an ultra closeup view of Rob Harrison "The Tumbling Bear" flying his Czechoslovakian
Zlin 50LX. Aerobatic performances are a staple of most airshows in
America, partly because audiences like them and partly because they cost
less than warbird displays - it's very expensive to keep old military aircraft
flying, so the fees to bring such aircraft to a show are very high. |
 |
I'm not usually a
big fan of civilian aerobatic displays, it's the technology and history
of military aircraft which really interests me. I'm also too
ignorant of flying to know what maneuvers are more or less difficult than
others, so I can't really appreciate what the pilots are doing.
However, even I can see that some of the things these planes are doing
are pretty amazing, and I've finally decided that I'll have to make a page
about the aerobatic displays at this show. American airshows
have very strict safety rules about what can and can't be done at these
events, but since I was outside the regulated display "box" at this show,
there are quite a few photos from angles that you won't normally see, like
this one. |
| The
Kern County airshow is very unusual in a number of ways. For
one thing, it was held on a Wednesday instead of the weekend, so I had
to take a day off work to get to it. Also, it bills itself
as an "Airshow and Aerospace Science Expo", which means that this isn't
supposed to be an airshow just for the sake of entertainment, it's also
meant to be educational and to promote the aerospace industry in this area.
The airshow was held at Inyokern airport, which is very near the navy China
Lake weapons testing area; together with other military installations like
Edwards Air Force Base, these are an important part of the local economy.
Kern county is also home to the Mojave Spaceport, where civilian entrepeneurs
like Bert Rutan developed SpaceShipOne and took it for its
first flight into space. One benefit of having an airshow
in the middle of the week is that it's possible to book acts which normally
wouldn't be available, such as the Canadian Air Force jet display team
called the Snowbirds. I've seen them perform once before, at
the Dayton airshow in 2003, and the crowd there really appreciated
them, even though the much flashier US Air Force Thunderbirds and US Navy
Blue Angels flew at the same show. |
 |
| The Snowbirds manage
to do a lot with somewhat limited resources - the Thunderbirds fly F-16
fighters and the Blue Angels fly F-18 fighters, but the Snowbirds have
to make do with CT-114 Tutor jet trainers. Of course, the Snowbirds
do have the numbers - eight aircraft instead of the six aircraft flown
by the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels. A fast pass by a Tutor
isn't as impressive as one done by an F-16 or an F-18, but the Canadians
make up for the lack of muscle by putting together some imaginative formation
maneuvers, one of their most popular ones being this barrel roll with all
eight planes, and another being the "Canada Burst" where all the aircraft
climb together with their smoke on and then do a "star burst" where each
of the aircraft heads off in a different direction. It's a
great sight in a clear blue sky like this one. |
 |
| I was too far away
to hear the crowd reaction at Inyokern, but during the Dayton airshow the
audience reserved their strongest reaction for the Snowbirds' head-on passes.
The crowd gasped every time the planes flew past one another seemingly
with only inches to spare. It's a reaction that the Snowbirds
milked for as much as it was worth, performing the pass 4 or 5 times during
the show! |
 |
| I
had a most unpleasant experience with a helicopter at the Point Mugu airshow
a few weeks earlier - a very historic Piasecki H-21 Shawnee was on static
display at the show, but as I drove home afterwards it flew right over
the top of me and I was unable to get a photo of it. So when
I saw this modern-day AH-64 Apache Longbow attack helicopter in British
colors on static display at this show, I decided that I'd ask the crew
if they were going to leave straight after the show. However,
on my way back to the showgrounds I heard the unmistakable sound of the
helicopter taking off. I was now shooting into the sun, so the lighting
isn't ideal, but since helicopter displays are a relatively uncommon sight
at airshows, I was grateful just to get a few shots of it as it flew past,
with the Sierra Nevada mountain range providing a dramatic backdrop. |
 |
It was half an hour
after the show had finished and almost all of the spectators had already
left, but it seems that the Apache pilot had his own thoughts on the lack
of helicopter performances at American airshows. In fact, whether
he was invited to perform or not, and probably whether he had permission
to perform or not, he was going to put his bird through its paces.
To my surprise and delight, then, he banked around and made a pass of the
now empty airfield. He threw the machine steeply up and back
down, went around once or twice more and finally made his exit.
I guess that's the sort of bravado that naturally happens when your Commanding
Officer is 6000 miles away! |
|
