Yeff wrote:

On Wed, 19 May 2004 18:49:40 -0400, Kevin Brooks wrote:

Granted the majority of the show has to be done at lower speeds, but I don't
know if they *never* get close to that speed... I remember as a kid watching
the Thunderbirds every summer at Langley AFB, and one of the features of
their show was the "everybody has their attention on the four aircraft to
their front, and along comes the solo from behind the crowd screaming
overhead like the hammers-from-hell at *very* high speed" bit. Wouldn't be
surprised if the solo was not doing every bit of M0.9 (plus) during that
event.

I was sitting on the roof of our ops building in the PI when the
Thunderbirds performed there (on their way to China). I'd been escorting
some civilian contractors working on the AC when the show started and we
all took a seat to watch. I think every one of us almost jumped off that
roof when the solo bird came overhead at high subsonic speed.

I was at Moffett some years back ('86 maybe?) when the T-birds opened the show
with the Diamond passing overhead the crowd from behind, as the announcer was
directing our attention forwards. Highly unusual opening, and I don't know how
they got away with it. But that was before the Ramstein crash of Frecce
Tricolori. I also saw the latter at Moffett a year or two before the crash, and
man, those guys WERE nuts. I remember standing next to an F-14 jock, and he was
saying that it was damned dangerous. Still the best airshow I've ever seen; in
addition to the Italians, the Marineflieger Vikings in their last year in the
F-104G, a solo F-15, plus the usual Moffett goodies (P-3, QSRA, etc.) and IIRR
some civilian types. Still have the program somewhere.

You'd think an F-104 would be a poor airshow performer, but it's all a question of
showcasing the strengths of the a/c. One of the best parts of the Vikings routine
was to have No. 1 make a dirty, slow speed (well, 180 kts. is slow for a Zipper)
high alpha pass at 200 feet or so along in front of the crowd and then, just as he
gets to show center with everyone's total attention on him, No. 2 comes blasting
by UNDERNEATH HIM at 600+ in full burner, immediately hauling it into the vertical
and rolling his way up while No. 1 cleans up, pops the burner and hauls his a/c
into the vertical behind No. 2 while accelerating, ending up topping out at about
12kft, not far behind No.2. Man, the whole audience sitting in the bleachers rose
about a foot out of our seats when No. 2 came past with no warning.

Of course, compared to the '50s or earlier, as airshows have become safer and
safer they've also become a lot more boring. I would have loved to have seen some
of the SBAC displays in the '30s, late '40s and '50s, or some of the
Russian/Ukrainian home shows; OTOH, I can certainly do without being pulped by
aircraft parts or incinerated by jetfuel/avgas.

Guy