Sacramento Air Show - F22 Raptor

[dobek]

It has been decades since I went to an airshow – boy am I sorry! I had a GREAT day at the Sacramento Air Show at the decommissioned Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento.

Typical Air Force type planes – B52 – AC135 – AC10 – F16 – F18 – C17 – C130 – C5

They had a real nice show of small aircraft (even had several Cessna’s for sale) – wingwalkers – acrobatics – even a local small airplane landing on a pickup truck.

They had a group called the “Patriots” – small group doing jet show in some nice looking Czech planes.

The Thunderbirds flew – did an awesome display – always a crowd pleaser –

BUT

The F22 Raptor stole the show – they had the Raptor do a demo flight – at one point he went vertical – came to a complete stop – stayed in place for a numbers of seconds – then pivoted on itself and takes off horizontal (and not a stall maneuver). He made a high speed pass and literally did the same thing at the end of the runway – cranks it up, rotates and comes back along the flight line. This plane did things I didn’t think were even possible – it has been a long time since I was truly impressed by an airplane. This aircraft is capable. It can go fast and maneuver – and it can go slow and maneuver – and it can transition fast to slow to fast without any hesitation. If you haven’t seen one – go watch a local show – I can guarantee you will be impressed.

At the end of the Raptor demo – he forms up with a Sabre and a Mustang and did a couple of flybys – very cool.

If you get a chance - hit youtube and watch this plane in action - it was worth the price of admission.

Hope you enjoy a couple of picts

Steve

PS – can you spot the other WWII plane I didn’t mention???

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t165/swdobek/IMG_1482.jpg
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[dobek]

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[dobek]

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[JB White]

PS – can you spot the other WWII plane I didn’t mention???

P 38

A Raptor flew over the house a few weeks ago during the Chicago Air & Water show. Neat looking bird.

[jon_norstog]

Steve, list:

The F-22 is the plane we need if we are going to maitain air superiority. Is it expensive? One of them is worth the annual budget of a medium-sized city. Do we need it? Think about what happens when the enemy controls the battlefield airspace. Who could that enemy be? Russia, China, or one of their clients. India? - anything can happen in world affairs.

The time may come again when we will need to build and fly the best 'plane in the world. And build thousands of them.

Every budget-cutter in DC has had the f-22 in their sights, now they just about have it killed off. They want the f-35 as a replacement. It's maybe half the plane the F-22 is. I can understand their arguments - basically that it's a new world and we're goign to be fighting 'asymettrical wars" like Iraq or Afghanistan. Maybe they're right. Maybe they are preparing us to fight the last war, instead of the next one.

My local Congressional staff person is a sweet guy, but I can sense he's getting tired of hearing from me. maybe someof you guys - provided you agree - could buzz *your** congressperson?

What would WWII have been like if the US had cut funding for the P-40, the F-4F and the development of the P-38 and furure fighters in 1939-40?

jn

[UUURah]

With every Air Force movie I see, I get more filled with pride. As some here have said, if we don't have air superiority then we are sunk.

Cutting the Raptor budget is one of the dumbest things our "leaders" could do. I get the Air Force Association magazine and they tell it like it is, even if they are prejudiced to America a bit.

Think about this. For 20 years the finest Fighter in the world has been the F-15. None have ever been defeated in air to air combat. But in mock trials, the F-22 has defeated them in multiples.

You can bet that right now in Russia and China, they are pouring over pictures and plans of the F-22 and soon will have a plane to nearly equal it. We MOVE FORWARD or we fall behind.

[Gloria Admin]

Those pics made me go nostalgic for the old days, living in FAA housing a few feet off the King Salmon Airfield's apron. I loved watching the planes in those days! The C-141's often stopped over on their way to and from Viet Nam. What a beautiful bird for a cargo plane. F-16's were the predominate fighters in those days and dozens were in and out of the King every week.

As for cost of these new aircraft, it's a pittance compared to $800,000,000,000 bailouts, trillions that disappear in the hands of the Federal Reserve to where they will not say, a trillion dollars to downgrade our health care system to third world levels. Money spent upgrading the
Air Force planes and our warships, too, would put thousands of people back to work and give our nation the security that can only come from having Armed Forces that no one is willing to take a chance against.

[Dave Waits]

Nice pics of my Favorites; P51-D, P38, F86 Sabre! The last pure Dogfighter.

[limazulu]

The last few pilots I talked with (not a large sampling) said future planes will be UAV's flown by pilots inside windowless rooms. The reason... the planes can be built to handle G-forces human beings could never survive.