Warbird Information Exchange

Great addition, Michael! The OH-6A Cayuse is a good Vietnam era Army helicopter to complement the Hueys. Looking forward to the next announcement!

There are a lot of potential warbird aircraft that could be added to the lineup over the next weeks and months. A few that come to mind that would be great to see: Collings F-4D, any A-4 Skyhawk, UH-34D, MiG-17, Dean Cutshall F-100F, DeHavilland Caribou, MiG-21, OV-1 Mohawk, O-2 Skymaster, another A-1 Skyraider, A-26 Invader, T-28, covering some Vietnam era warbirds. And of course a few more WWII or Post-WWII aircraft that are not Vietnam era are always welcome.

Look forward to the additions as they are announced!

Bet you that they don't do a plugged barrel roll with the A-4K's!

http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?ac ... ost=183000

Jared Isaacman, CEO of Draken International (Feb 28th)
"We are on track to have one, possibly two Skyhawks and two, possibly three, Macchi's ready for our NZ Aviation Heritage celebration."

Draken International Proudly Presents
Royal New Zealand Air Force Heritage Day

10 April 2013
Hosted at the SUN 'n FUN
International Fly-In & Expo

Lakeland Linder Airport | Lakeland, FL, USA

Hope to be at Sun 'n Fun on April 10 to see the Skyhawks.

Now back to Thunder - hope they can get the WHF A-4B and/or the Collings TA-4F!

Or are they locked in that government contract? I thought a lot of government military contracts have been canceled as part of the sequester. I would rather see F-104s over F-16s any day.

Draken has Mig-17s, I believe up to 20 Mig-21s and another 20 A-4s - would be nice to get them to come to Thunder

I'm probably wrong on this, so please correct me. But the starfighters are involved with NASA so they wouldn't count in the sequester? NASA isn't military correct?

They certainly could.
The goal is to cut government spending, much as we'd have to cut our spending if we were $20,000 overdrawn on our credit card, and being drowned in debt and interest - And NASA is a government agency, so is fair game for cuts.
Without getting too political, the game seems to be to hit high visibility programs, that way one side can cry out what meanies the other side is for not letting them tax & spend as much as they want. TBirds & Angels are highly visible, so they were cut. Aircraft carrier deployments are highly visible, so some of them are being cut. Immigration enforcement, or lack thereof, is highly visible, so its being cut. I doubt if the 104's are even a faint blip on the radar screen in all of this.
[Its worth noting for perspective that the Blues, for example, cost around $40 million a season, and we just handed out within the last few days $300,000,000, yes, $300 million, to Egypt & Mali, no strings attached, a gift from US taxpayers, with more shortly to come]. This graphically illustrates the unprecedented political posturing we are in the midst of.
I am beyond furious about this state of affairs so I'll shut up now.

how about the 400+mil Light Attack Aircraft contract that was just awarded for 20 aircraft to be given to Afganistan. Let alone the fact that the previous contract, which was overturned by the GAO and rebidded, was only ~350mil for the same amount of aircraft...

_________________
Tyler Pinkerton
Active Member of Air Heritage Inc. of Beaver Falls, PA.
Aircraft: C47B, C-123K, Fairchild F-24, Funk Model B, L-21B, T-28B, T-34B
Static: F-4C Phantom II, F-15A, T-3 Provost

The list gos on and on, government simply has no control with spending, worse than a teen girl with a credit card at the mall, much worse.
I believe the clipping of the Blues & Angels is unprecedented, least I can't recall them scrubbing a season in over 30 years. An iconic aerial event that entertains 1,000,000's every year, and brings $1,000,000's into local economies all across the nation. Countless youngsters are awestruck and inspired, and some go on to fly themselves, always harking back to the day when they 1st saw these amazing performers. All of that lost, while we continue to subsidize the needs of people that hate us, just sickening.
Lets just hope things stay on track for TOM, the way things are going, nothing would surprise me.

STARFIGHTERS is a private outfit under contract to NASA.

_________________
Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Sorry to open a can of worms, lets get back on track for this Great warbird show! May be the only show I go to!

No can of worms, we are all big boys and no one has gotten out of line.
Canning the Tbirds season is a huge event for those who have been attending shows for decades, it affects TOM and dozens of other shows, and is fair game to be discussed.
Very few multi page threads remain 100% on track to the original post. There has been very little in the way of updates, they are posted as they come along, so this thread would otherwise be buried deep were it not for side discussions like this.
Probably will be the only show for me as well. Selfridge months ago cancelled their bi-annual show. Battle Creek, which I have been going to for years, is completely gutted, they had Tbird scheduled as well as a F-18 demo, other than that it is all stunt teams, won't be going this year.

Recently from Facebook:

Thunder Over Michigan

Keep watch on the Facebook page.......an announcement regarding a Vietnam 'fast-mover' being added to the line up is coming soon!

Looking forward to maybe hearing about an F-4, A-4 or F-100 being added to the lineup!

Saying this in the interest of helping the show...

Might want to put something on the website/Facebook about the Thunderbirds performance being tentative. While enthusiasts and people who populate this board understand the "aircraft performance subject to availability" disclaimer with regards to the T-Birds, the general public probably does not. Members of the general public buying advance tickets are buying them with the understanding that the T-Birds are headlining, when in all likelihood they will not be performing. Might want to cover your asses with a specific disclaimer regarding their performance or you may end up with a lot of pissed off people wanting their money back when the T-Birds can't perform.

I'm not saying this to be nasty, or stir the pot or anything like that. Just hoping that's something that might save the show some trouble with future complaints.

Looking forward to the show!

_________________
Matt