2011 Alliance Air Show Review
PhotoRecon.Net recently attended the 2011 Alliance Air Show located down in Ft. Worth Texas. The event is held at the Alliance Ft. Worth airport about 15 miles West of Dallas.
The show, which was estimated as bringing in a crowd of around 100,000 people over the two-day event, was cut in half after a thunderstorm came through Saturday night and dumped about a inch of rain that turned the grass parking lots into mud lots.
The main attraction at the show was the United States Air Force Thunderbirds; a team of 6 F-16’s. The Air Force also sent F-15 demonstration team led by Major Mike “Cash” Maeder. For the statics the Air Force sent F-16’s based in San Antonio, A B-52 from North Dakota and a Texas Air Guard C-130 also from San Antonio.
The NAVY sent VFA-122 F/A-18 to wow the crowd and one for a static display along with a couple of SkyHawks. The Marines brought in 2 Ospreys for statics from the VMM-161 based in Miramar Marine Base in Southern California.
Also on hand was BAE Systems with their new training aircraft, the Hawk, which they plan to put together a bid packet for the USAF who is planning to replace the T-38. The Hawk is set up for 4th and 5th generation air fighters that the Air Force is flying in the F-22 and F-35. The two birds on hand were on loan from the Royal Air Force, who currently uses the aircraft as a trainer. They also took the plane to the skies to give the first ever demo of the aircraft in its history.
Alliance is also home to a maintenance base for American Airlines, they brought in Flagship Detroit, a classic DC-3, the Susan G. Komen Boeing 777-223ER (N759AN) and had its regional partner American Eagle, bring in an Susan G. Komen ERJ-145 (N691AE). FedEx was also on hand with a 727 along with Orbis, a DC-10 that they use to fly across the world to teach doctors in under developed and funded countries about eye surgery.
PhotoRecon.net would like to specially thank Major Maeder of the F-15 demo team and Lisa Hillary-Tee from BAE for the help with getting out on the hot ramp to get even better shots of the team. Also would like to thank Katie Kuczek with the Herb Gillen Agency who approved PhotoRecon.net for media access, we hope to work closely with them in the near future!
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