Airsho '76 photos

bluehawk15 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:05 am

I apologize in advance for the quality, or lack thereof, these pics have. They were shot on slide film, with my Kodak X-15 instamatic. Back then I thought slides would give better quality, and would last forever. I know now that they fade and age a lot!

Here we go!

Welcome to Airsho '76 in Harlingen, Texas! This is the old fighter hangar.

The WWII hangar we called the Bomber hangar.

Behind the "Maintenance Hangar" which was parts storage. The Red Devils and Super Chipmunk.

Fifi on the ramp

The CWH B-25 on the ramp. It was an exec transport for Bendex, as I recall, and had three
JATO bottles in the tail gunner's position, just in case they lost an engine on take off.

Fighter row on the ramp. Past the French marked P-63 you see three from San Marcos, the
P-39, and John Stokes' P-51D we called the Checkerboard Nose, and his SeaFury #51 which
was a two-holer (#251) that was one of three he got from Germany (target tugs). John had
it modified to a single hole, and had it raced at Reno in '75 or '76. Before my time anyway.

Lefty's rides! His "Thunderbird" P-51 and the Lefty and Lloyd Nolan owned P-38 "White
Lightnin' " which was leased to the CAF for $1 per year.

A pair of Lockheeds, seems like eons apart!

Mosquito had just arrived from across the pond, and needed some engine work.

The Big Tailed Beast herself, SB2C Helldiver

TBM Avenger

A VERY much younger (just turned 18!) me and the TBM.

More?

Robbie Stuart · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:16 am

Always love seeing old Airsho pics. Thanks for posting.

Robbie

bluehawk15 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:23 am

I've got a few more, including "The Puff of Smoke Heard 'Round The World"! I was sitting on the edge of the runway as "Last Chance" or "Gear Watch", which gave me a unique angle, just wish I had a better camera at the time.

More to come!

bluehawk15 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:58 am

OK, due to lack of popular demand, I'm going to post a few more!

The Blue Angels were flying the A-4 in 1976. Here is their four-ship formation take off.
Photo taken from the edge of the runway!

#5 solo about to take off

The Army had a helicopter demo team, the "Silver Eagles". This was their last year, due to
budget cuts. It was decided that the Army didn't need two demo teams, so they had to
choose between the Silver Eagles and the Golden Knights. Knights won. All this in spite
of the fact the two Army teams together cost less than a quarter of either jet demo team.

A Silver Eagle on the ground. B-29 Fifi taking off over it in the distance. John Stokes'
replica Kate to the right (which now belongs to the CAF and is Kate 310)

The "Queen of the fleet", Fifi the B-29 on take off roll. Taken from my perch on the
edge of the runway.

What better way to end this group of Airsho '76 photos than with "The Puff Of Smoke Heard
'Round The World"? The best A-bomb simulation (I understand it was a real A-bomb simulator)
with the B-29 barely visable above it, flying away as quickly as possible!

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 11:08 am

Seems like the Helldiver and Avenger were in matching schemes!

Robbie Stuart · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 11:21 am

Good stuff Mike!

bluehawk15 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 11:46 am

Thanks guys!

I never noticed, over 33 years, the matching paint schemes between the SB2C and TBM! The SB2C's shades of blue were a little lighter, but you can't ignore the tail "slash" on them both!

bluehawk15 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 4:55 pm

It sure brought back memories to me, as I posted these slides! I learned all about the CAF ways, back in the day, from a hard partying bunch of colonels, led by Nat Henderson. It was after the airshow, when all of John's planes were heading back to San Marcos, that I got my first ever airplane ride. Ron Iberg was flying John's Kate. Fleetwood Richards was in the middle seat, and I got to ride in the tail gunner's seat. Bill Childers was on our wing in John's Val.

Chunks · **Joined:** Fri Jun 15, 2007 10:02 am **Posts:** 361

Again, thanks for posting the pics. How I would love to go back in time and spend an hour in that maintenance hangar again. There were some incredible treasures in there. Can't say how many, but a lot of corsair and mustang canopies hanging on the wall for sure!

Chunks

Obergrafeter · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:11 pm

Cuz, what did you keep in that styrofoam "Pearl" cooler with you out at the edge of the runway. As you were't legal yet I bet it was Nehi grape!

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 8:26 pm

Great pics! Reminds me of my first "encounter" with the CAF's heavy iron, the following summer at Selfridge AFB.

Didn't the A-bomb simulation result in some protests? I know some protestors smeared with fake blood attempted to stage a "sit in" in front of Fifi at the Selfridge show. I understand the crash trucks gave them a bath after one tried to throw bucket of red paint at the airplane.

SN

Ztex · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:50 pm

Great stuff!

I love the Pearl cooler!

And yes the A-bomb cloud simulation always brings out the protesters. :roll:

Lynn Allen · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:06 pm

Thanks for the slides Mike, do you have a close up of John's P-51 or others? Is the P-51 still around??

Lynn

bluehawk15 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 11:52 pm

Lynn, I'll look and see what I can find. I have a lot more slides that I need to get scanned. And I think I have a couple other discs already done. I don't know what happened to the P-51. At one time John had two of them, but the other was gone by the time I turned 18 and could get involved.

Cuz, the drinking age in 1976 was 18! That's why they started letting 18 year olds in the CAF. I was there with Jim Thixton, he just had some water and gatorade in the cooler.

Steve, as I recall the story, maybe not from Selfridge, but somewhere up in Yankeeland (as we Confederate Colonels called it) there was an incident that happened BEFORE the simulation. A group of anti-war and anti-nukes hippies staged a sit-in in front of Fifi. They had baby bottles filled with waterbased red paint or dye, and were squirting Fifi with them and writing slogans with them. The fire department came and washed Fifi down, and unfortunately some of the protesters got wet. Probably the first bath some of them had in years! The flight crew wanted the cops to move them from in front of the plane. The reply was that they couldn't touch them unless they were endangering themselves. Now...should they begin to start the engines..... Funny how they decided to engage the starter to move the prop ever so slightly. It was enough that the cops were able to have just cause to remove them from the area!

Airsho '76 was the first time we did the simulated A-bomb. The protests from that didn't come from anywhere in the US, it was the mayor of Hiroshima! He was upset because he thought we were making light of the bombing. The State Department came to us and wanted us to not ever do it again, and to apologize to the mayor. We wouldn't do it for the State Dept. But then the Dept of Defense came and asked, saying that it could put some of our bases in peril of being closed if we didn't. For them, we said we were sorry, but said we were sorry that he was upset about it, and explained that it was not done to make light of the event, or to entertain, but to remind people of the horrors of war, and how it affected people on both sides with losses. He then said to us that he was sorry, that he didn't know the full story, and all was good again in the world!

JohnH · **Posted:** Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:44 am

I was 9 years old and just getting into warbirds then. I remember how thrilled I was when my uncle came to ourplace for christmas in 77 with slide pics and 8 mm movies of the 77 show like this. It was so exciting to find out that these airplanes were still being flown and here stories about them. Thanks for sharing.

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