Fifi! And Friends

The Commemorative Air Force's B-29 Superfortress came to Oakland County International Airport this week.

I managed to go see her today, along with the CAF's Stearman and a T-6 Texan that came for the event.

This was not a mere static display. They flew!

First the T-6 Texan took to the skies, taking off from Runway 9R.

She passed above Fifi on the way:

Then wheels going up, she headed off for the tour.

The Stearman was next:

Then the Grand Dame of the show taxi'd

Then Fifi was told to line up and wait on Runway 9R to start her two outboard engines and do the run up.

Then clearance to take off:

Fifi was purchased from the Air Force in 1971 and transferred to the Commemorative (then Confederate) Air Force and restored to flying condition. The restoration then took three years. She's one of only two flying B-29s.

So she took off this morning and at 8:16 am, directly over Detroit's City hall she opened her bomb bay does and serious urban renewal took place. Just kidding. Although, much of Detroit still looks worse than if it had been bombed, just saying.

Fifi took people on flights yesterday and today and she'll be wrapping up her visit here.

An awesome visit by some mighty historic aircraft.

It's Not A Bird, It's Not A Plane, It's The Jet Truck

Homewrecker, the Jet truck was also featured at the OCIA Airshow.

Likely, it is called Homewrecker as the poor wife of the guy who built it probably just lost it at the idea that he was going to build a jet-powered monster truck. 

Built on a Ford 650, she's a monster.

You could feel the heat as it passed by, as well as the push of the jet blast.

The smoke it produced was impressive.

So much so, it disappeared into its own smoke-screen, only to reappear with first tongues of flame being seen and the truck then advanced out of the smoke.

Get a load of the jet engine on that truck:

After much smoke and fury for the delight of the crowd, Homewrecker traveled down the taxiway to get into position on the runway.

On "takeoff" homewrecker showed how fast a jet-powered truck could move.  Note the parachute deployed to slow it as it sprints down the runway with the jet engine screaming - it was fast.

That was quite the display to end the Airshow.

An Extra Fine Performance By The Phillips 66 Aerostars

After the Pitts did a solo aerobatic display and the Hooligans did a formation display, it was time for The Phillips 66 Aerostars and their formation aerobatic display.

It was Extra fine as they were flying Extra 300s and taking them to the limit.

A tight formation.

More tight formations.

Then they flew a loop while in formation.

Then two of them did some aerobatics, including crossing over each other.

It was a heckuva display of daring combined with exacting performance, coordination, and control.

They then finished by peeling away and landing with perfect equal spacing one after another.

Great Scott! - The Aerobatics of Dave Scott at OCIA 2018

The Pitts Biplane is an aerobatic beast, with power to spare for crowd-delighting performances.

Dave Scott knows how to really wring out the performance of a Pitts and he did so at the airshow.

His routine began with a hangar-height pass down the runway.

Then up into a loop.

It's not an aerobatic performance in a Pitts unless you do tricks inverted:

Hammerhead stalls, loops, knife-edge pases, barrel rolls, and spins thrilled the crowd.

A great performance.

The Hooligans

We ran into the Hooligans on the ground at the restaurant at Jackson on Saturday, and they were present on the ground and in the air at the OCIA airshow.



Flying T34 Mentors in both Air Force and Navy colors, the Hooligans put on a great demonstration of formation flying.

A formation takeoff started their demonstration:






The fourth plane in the team then joined up and the demonstration of various formations began.

They did a variety of formations, ending with the missing man formation in honor of Martin J. Tibbits.

The Hooligans put on a great aerial demonstration.

Oakland County International Airport Open House And Airshow 2018

It is airshow season here in Michigan.

Today I went to Pontiac Airport and attended the annual open house and airshow and brought my camera along.

 Lots more to follow.