Warbird Information Exchange

All,

The dates for THUNDER OVER MICHIGAN 2011 will be July 23rd & 24th.
The theme will be "The Centennial of Naval Aviation".

More to come soon!

http://www.yankeeairmuseum.org/airshow/

_________________
Michael Luther
Yankee Air Museum's
Air Show Director
THUNDER OVER MICHIGAN

I figured I would move my earlier post from the "Corrected Dates" thread over to here where Michael Luther started a dedicated TOM 2011 thread a couple of days back. This is probably where our disussions should take place as we go forward.



There are a LOT of potential vintage civilian owned former U.S. Navy/Marine aircraft out there that could attend. Some are single examples and some are multiples. Some that come to mind are:

F4F/FM-2 Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, F7F Tigercat, F8F Bearcat, F4U/FG-1 Corsair, FJ-4B Fury, AD/A-1 Skyraider, A-4 Skyhawk, Dauntless, Helldiver, Avenger, PV/PV-2 Harpoon, T-33/TV-2 Shooting Star, T-1A/T2V-1 Seastar, T-2 Buckeye, SNJ Texan, T-28 Trojan, T-34 Mentor, JRB/SNB/C-45, R4D/C-47, C-1 Trader, S-2 Tracker, PBY Catalina, J2F Duck, UH-34D Seahorse

I believe most of the above exist in vintage Navy/Marine markings. There are also some potential flying vintage aircraft out there which although possibly former Naval aircraft, may not be in naval markings, such as:

PB4Y-2 Privateer, Grumman Goose, Grumman Albatross, P2V/P-2 Neptune, R5D/C-54 Skymaster, R6D/C-118 Liftmaster, R4Y/C-131, PBJ/B-25

The Collings Foundation F-4D Phantom should be included to represent Naval F-4 Phantoms, since other than the Air Force markings it is nearly identical in many respects to the Navy/Marine F-4B or F-4J version.

Currently serving Navy/Marine aircraft that have been around a long time and which may be near the end of their service life that should definitely be included are the EA-6B Prowler, T-39 Sabreliner, CH-46/HH-46 Sea Knight, P-3 Orion and C-130 Hercules (of course not near the end of its service life).

An aircraft I can think of that certainly could be brought to flying status for the 2011 Centennial if there was the will to do it (which I DON'T believe there is, unfortunately) is the Grumman F9F-2B Panther owned by the Cavanaugh Flight Museum.

I know there are some other former naval aircraft out there that in flying or near flying status, but that is all I can think of for now. I am sure the Yankee Air Museum will go all out to get as wide a variety of vintage naval warbirds for next year's show as possible.

_________________
Jim C.

TimAPNY wrote:
What if the CF paint the B-24 as a PB4Y-1?

Come on that can't cost that much, right?

I'm really looking forward to seeing a bunch of Navy Aircraft next year.

Tim


Tim - not a bad idea, but a better one I think would be to repaint the CF F-4D as a 1960s/1970s Navy F-4B/N or F-4J/S, but RickH shot me down on that idea a while back........I know it would be a major job to strip and repaint in the gull gray and white, but wouldn't one of the colorful 60s/70s Navy/Marine paint schemes look great in 2011??

The link below lists the official "Events" associated with the Centennial of Naval Aviation next year:

http://www.navalaviation100.org/eventlist

Thunder Over Michigan 2011 will be perhaps the TOP warbird related air show associated with the Centennial and will be immediately followed by EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh which is also a "Tier 1" event for the Centennial.

July next year should be amazing.

How many of these shows will feature the "Blues"?

Here is a link which includes the Blue Angels' 2011 Schedule that you can use to cross reference with the events list in the previous post:

http://www.blueangels.navy.mil/schedules_iframe.htm

I think most of the Centennial event air shows will feature the Blue Angels, but a notable one that will NOT is EAA AirVenture 2011 at Oshkosh.

First 2011 participate,

Tom Buck's TBM Avenger.

_________________
Michael Luther
Yankee Air Museum's
Air Show Director
THUNDER OVER MICHIGAN

Great to hear, Michael! The Avenger is the first of what I am sure will become a steadily growing list of terrific vintage warbirds over the next several months.

Does it have to be US Naval Aviation?

Think Seafire(s), Firefly, Swordfish, Sea Fury(ies). And a Corsair without stars on it.

August

Yeah, but the RN's had their centenary already. So 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8036437.stm

Besides without a Blackburn Blackburn or Blackburn Firebrand, it's just lacking originality.

Heh.

_________________
James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Thunder Over Michigan, is 1 of only 32 show's in the U.S. next year, that is approved as an official USN 100th Anniversary site.

This should translate into maximum support from the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard at each event.

Hopefully, we will see several commemorative aircraft paint schemes.

These 32 show's, spread throughout the United States, will be a once in a lifetime event!

Cheers,

Tom Walsh.

I think this would be a perfect year to bring in some Japanese aircraft as well...Tora Tora Tora team?

Agreed! Would be nice to see a nice big dogfight.

_________________
Ryan Orshinsky
Windsor, ON
CH2A - Engineering
rorshinsky@ch2a.ca
http://www.ch2a.ca

Although the Lockheed S-3 Viking has been retired from Fleet Service with the Navy, 3 S-3B Vikings refurbished at NAS Jacksonville, FL are to be delivered by this December to VX-30 at Point Mugu, CA for test work:

http://www.aviationnews.eu/2010/05/25/f ... -squadron/

The Vikings are in a very attractive paint scheme and hopefully at least one of these can make it to Thunder Over Michigan next year.

It would be outstanding to see one of these unique airplanes in the air with a vintage S-2 Tracker or C-1 Trader.

Just added,

Tom Duffy's FG-1D Corsair & Rudy Frasca's FM-2 Wildcat.

_________________
Michael Luther
Yankee Air Museum's
Air Show Director
THUNDER OVER MICHIGAN