Offutt Air Show 2003

[Apollo Leader]

One of the two F-117 Nighthawks from the 8th Fighter Squadron (The Blacksheep) performed on Saturday and Sunday.

[JELEINEN]

I wish I could've gone, but I ended up working Saturday morning and then I had car problems. Looks like it was a blast. Maybe next year...

[Apollo Leader]

I don't have any still shots of the Harrier's short take off but I have plaent of its flight and when it hovered over the runway for over a minute before landing.

Here the Harrier is in a tight turn.

[Apollo Leader]

I wish I could've gone, but I ended up working Saturday morning and then I had car problems. Looks like it was a blast. Maybe next year...

If you had called or e-mailed me, you could have car pooled with me. Wish you, Jon, or David Hingtgen could have been there.

Here's the Harrier slowing down to a vertical hover.

[Apollo Leader]

After the Harrier came to a stop in midair, it did a number of things like hover backwards and hover sideways. Here it is hovering sideways.

[Apollo Leader]

On my way out, I got a bunch of pictures of the B-1B Lancer on display.

[Apollo Leader]

B-1 nose art.

[Apollo Leader]

The B-1's triple bomb bay set. The divider between the front two bays can be removed to make one large bay (for ALCM's or ACM's).

Edited August 26, 2003 by Apollo Leader

[Apollo Leader]

Sunday the 24th, Day 2!

Here is a flyable replica of the Orville and Wilbur Wright's 1905 Wright Flyer III. Of course it's made of modern materials and a modern mortorcycle engine (I think from a Harley).

[Apollo Leader]

One of the crew members (pilot or WSO) of this Strike Eagle was nice enough to get a picture of me next to the cockpit. (The F-15 Eagle is my favorite operational jet fighter in the world ).

[Apollo Leader]

Here I am in front of the of the F-117 that nearly gave Saddam a 2,000 lbs headache!

[Apollo Leader]

Soon after I got out to the flight line, the Army's Golden Knights did their first jump. This jumper landed about 75 feet out in front of me.

[Apollo Leader]

One of Offutt's RC-135's makes a flyby.

[Apollo Leader]

The 1905 Wright Flyer III replica did several takeoffs and landings.

[Apollo Leader]

Right after 12:30, the first round of CAF aircraft started flying around. When the first wave of aircraft landed, this T-6 Texan suffered a failure in its left landing gear (probably a broken pin from too much side force). The T-6 swerved to the right and ended up in the grass. This picture was taken about 30 seconds after the crash. The pilot had already exited the plain and the first rescue vehicle was on the scene.

Until the T-6 was towed away, the show was on hold for about an hour and a half.

[Apollo Leader]

The T-6 is carefully pulled back to the runway.

Even with the hour + delay, virtually everything that was scheduled to fly took place.

[Apollo Leader]

This was a better picture I got of the F-117 when it flew on Sunday; it arrived back at Offutt just minutes after the T-6 had been cleared.

[Apollo Leader]

A few more F-16 pictures!

F-16 on a high speed pass.

[Apollo Leader]

F-16 makes a tight, high G turn.

[Apollo Leader]

An RAF Nimrod performed on both days of the show. The Nimrod is a direct descendant of the old Comet airliner... Britain's and the world's first operational jet powered airliner. The Nimrod is used for anit-shipping and anti-submarine patrols.

[Apollo Leader]

The Nimrod shows off its bomb bay where it's torpedoes are stored.

[Apollo Leader]

I gotta bunch more pictures, but they are pretty much a repeat of everything you just saw.

Again, if anyone wants me to e-mail them any of the movies I recorded, let me know.

Gotta wait another year to the 2004 Offutt Air Show and Open House!

[Commander McBride]

I'm wondering, where was this? I don't think you said....

[David Hingtgen]

Offutt Air Show at Offut AFB. Just south of Omaha. SAC headquarters.

Anyways:

1. Inconsistency of the USAF! I was 30 ft away from the rope (so like 50ft from the plane) from the last F-117 I saw, and they (guards) yelled at me the second I took my camera out. You get pics of yourself next to it.

2. Inconsistency---all the A-10's, F-18's, and F-15's looked to have pretty far-off ropes. At same "no F-117 pics" show, I could touch whatever I wanted, no ropes (except the 117). (F-14 was at another show, but it's ropes were only like 2 feet from the plane--rather pointless, didn't restrict access at all)

3. Oooh, E-4B. Interesting that it doesn't appear to have any IR/ECM for the engines, only the APU. (Contrasting with Air Force One, which has them on the engines too)

4. I'd NEVER thought there'd be a Nimrod there. PS--it's a modified Comet 4C, which is quite a bit different from the original Comet. (Like, YF-17 vs F/A-18F different)

5. Man, I've NEVER seen a Harrier. That's the number one reason I wanted to go this year. (I haven't been there since 1990). Never seen a B-2 either, nor a B-1B in the air. This year appeared to be a GOOD one.

6. F-16's rock, especially ones from Hill AFB. (Even if Shaw AFB is now considered the main F-16 home)

7. F-15's my fave *operational* jet too. (YF-23 rules all)

[Commander McBride]

1. Inconsistency of the USAF! I was 30 ft away from the rope (so like 50ft from the plane) from the last F-117 I saw, and they (guards) yelled at me the second I took my camera out. You get pics of yourself next to it.

I think that's probably because it was someone taking a picture of a person with the F-117, not of the plane itself. Besides, wouldn't you get paranoid if you saw a guy taking pictures of every little detail, including sticking his head and camera in the exhaust?

[Etrigan]

Thanks for all the great pics! Especially those F-16 shots. While the 16 isn't my favorite operational fighter (that's reserved for the 14) it's hard to find good shots of the craft.

Had I known about the show, I probably would have gone; it's less than an hour trip from my home and I haven't been to one in years. In fact, the last time I saw a fighter in person was in St. Louis while aboard a 727 headed for Florida; the runway was held as an F-18 took flight.

Any idea when the next show is?

[CF18]

Ottawa also have an air show the same weekend. The ground display was a disappointment - nothing military and all the vintages fly away right after the show. But at least I could get close to the vintage taxi-way and took some good pics.

Fokker DR.I

[CF18]

Spitfire Mk XVI

[CF18]

B-25 landing

[CF18]

Snowbird.

[David Hingtgen]

Apollo Leader got a nice up-close pic of the canopy w/mission marks. And you can cleary see the intake grill details, which is one of the most advanced parts of the plane.

I've read that at some airshows, they have platforms set up so you can get pics from above the F-117!

And of course, there's always any F-117 book, which shows each and every single panel, rivet, and button.

PS---you can't see the 117's engines at all, they're totally hidden, it's part of the design. And you physically can't stick your head up the exhaust or intake. And of course, that's FAR closer than they'll ever let you get. (Unless you're a professional doing a book about F-117's)

[VF-19]

Ahhgh... CF18 you've got pics of my favorite aircraft... The spitfire...

I was planning to go this year to the one in Carp (outside of Ottawa), but I was unable to...

[Apollo Leader]

Offutt Air Show at Offut AFB. Just south of Omaha. SAC headquarters.

Anyways:

1. Inconsistency of the USAF! I was 30 ft away from the rope (so like 50ft from the plane) from the last F-117 I saw, and they (guards) yelled at me the second I took my camera out. You get pics of yourself next to it.

2. Inconsistency---all the A-10's, F-18's, and F-15's looked to have pretty far-off ropes. At same "no F-117 pics" show, I could touch whatever I wanted, no ropes (except the 117). (F-14 was at another show, but it's ropes were only like 2 feet from the plane--rather pointless, didn't restrict access at all)

3. Oooh, E-4B. Interesting that it doesn't appear to have any IR/ECM for the engines, only the APU. (Contrasting with Air Force One, which has them on the engines too)

4. I'd NEVER thought there'd be a Nimrod there. PS--it's a modified Comet 4C, which is quite a bit different from the original Comet. (Like, YF-17 vs F/A-18F different)

5. Man, I've NEVER seen a Harrier. That's the number one reason I wanted to go this year. (I haven't been there since 1990). Never seen a B-2 either, nor a B-1B in the air. This year appeared to be a GOOD one.

6. F-16's rock, especially ones from Hill AFB. (Even if Shaw AFB is now considered the main F-16 home)

7. F-15's my fave *operational* jet too. (YF-23 rules all)

Offutt is the home of the Strategic Command and the 55th Recon. Wing. SAC ceased to be June 1st 1992.

1. NEVER have had problems taking pictures of the F-117 at a show. What base/field did you run into problems? I remember at the 1990 Offutt Air Show when the F-117 made its first debut... there were two layers of security rope back in those days for the Nighthawk!

2. There was some odd criteria for which aircraft were roped or not. The F-15E's, the A-10's, the B-52, the F-117, the E-3 Sentry, the RC-135, and some other's were roped. The F/A-18 and the B-1B were not... it seemed real weird that the more modern B-1 was more accessible then the ancient B-52! On Saturday, they even had the boarding ladder open for the public to get a few of the B-1's cockpit! I asked one of the F-15E pilots about this and his answers were 1) the Air Force and Navy's rules were different about this, 2) the B-1 probably wasn't roped because much of the aircraft is high above the ground (unlike the lower sitting B-52 and the other fighters), 3) there was just "certain things on some of these aircraft that the Air Force didn't want people seeing or touching". I should add that in pass years, aircraft like the F-15E or A-10 had no security rope and anyone could come up and touch them... of course this is a post 9/11 world.

3. The E-4B mainly operates within the vicinity of Offutt and mainly stays within US borders. Probably not much concern for defense against IR missiles (that could change, though).

4. There has been a Nimrod at the show numerous times through out the years either on ground display or in the air. Also, German Tornado IDS's have been here on fround display a few time. There was quite a few NATO aircraft here for the 1999 show including Jaguars.

5. A B-2 has been part of almost every show going back to 1995. The B-1 is always cool to see. A Harrier performs here about every two or three years.

6. Though it's less manueverable, I love the sheer power of the F-15.

7. I liked the YF-23 over the YF-22 myself.

[Apollo Leader]

Apollo Leader got a nice up-close pic of the canopy w/mission marks. And you can cleary see the intake grill details, which is one of the most advanced parts of the plane.

It's just a simple grill... the main thing about making the F-117 was making a non-curved, faceted, aircraft that would not only redirect electromagnetic energy away from a transmitting radar, but one that would also FLY!

[JELEINEN]

I wish I could've gone, but I ended up working Saturday morning and then I had car problems.  Looks like it was a blast.  Maybe next year...

If you had called or e-mailed me, you could have car pooled with me. Wish you, Jon, or David Hingtgen could have been there.

I didn't get out of work until after 1:00 in the afternnoon. It would have been cool to see though.