Hanscom AFB’s 1989 and 1991 Air Shows
42nd Bomb Wing KC-135R based at Loring AFB, Maine. The base in Maine is now closed Air Force Base due to the BRAC. The three year period between 1989 and 1991 saw a pair of air shows at Massachusetts’...
Author: Ken Kula
Looking Back at the NAS Oceana Air Show of 2006 – The Tomcat’s Sundown
The 2006 NAS Oceana Air Show was one of the major highlights (or lowlights, depending how you feel) for U. S. Naval aviation in the new Millennium. The show featured the beginning of the Sunset events for the Grumman...
Blue Angels Homecoming 2009, the Last JATO For “Bert”
When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the New Orleans area in 2005, it set in motion a grand finale event in 2009. When the storm hit NAS New Orleans as the story goes, a large part of a cache of...
An Incomplete Review of the Train Wreck That Was 2020
The tumultuous year of 2020 has ended, leaving many dreams shattered, lives changed forever, and the aviation world a very different place than it was just one year ago. The so-called global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus has...
The Blue Angels’ 60th Birthday Bash at RNLAF Leeuwarden
Koninklijke Luchtmacht (RNLAF) Leeuwarden Open Dagen 2006 2021 is the Squadron’s 75 anniversary! As the Blue Angels have retired all of their Legacy Hornets and their KC-130T in 2020, let’s take a look back at their F/A-18A and B...
Antique/Classic/Contemporary Scrapbook #3
1941 Interstate S-1A-65F, one of Kent Pietsch’s air show aircraft. Here’s the last of our three-volume collection of Antique and Classic aircraft. Some of these are former military aircraft, others were built for the civilian market in the first...
Brigadier General Charles “Chuck” Yeager Has Died
Brigadier General Charles “Chuck” Yeager died in Los Angeles on Monday, December 7, 2020 at age 97. The famous pilot served in the U.S. Army Air Corps and Air Force for decades, becoming an ace fighter pilot in World...
Blue Angels Legacy Hornet and Hercules Scrapbook
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ Blue Angels have retired all of their Legacy aircraft during the 2020 calendar year. Gone is the Marines KC-130T “Fat Albert Airlines” transport, as well as the F/A-18A/B/C/D Hornets. New aircraft in the...
A Visit to Boston’s Logan Airport in July, 2020
It took only 45 minutes on a Saturday evening in July to “get my groove back” again! The COVID-19 pandemic had grounded me as far as aviation photography was concerned, with no air shows to travel to, and...
Blue Angels Legacy Hornets Retired
The United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, better known as the Blue Angels, recently flew their “sundown” voyage with their F/A-18 Legacy Hornets. The term “Legacy” refers to early model McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F/A-18 model A/B/C/D Hornets. The Team is...
Aircraft That Served in Both Military and Civilian Markets
There are many examples in aviation history where an aircraft model has served similar roles in both military and civilian use. Especially during the early years of World War II, many civilian aircraft were either modified for, or impressed...
Our Dassault Mirage Scrapbook
Originally designed as a single seat fighter with a secondary bomber role, the French Dassault Mirage family of aircraft was expanded to include advanced fighter-interceptors and pure bomber variants. A pair of these bomber versions could employ nuclear weapons...
