EAA AirVenture 2015 Photo Dump

"Jcarr" (jcarr) 07/27/2015 at 12:59 • Filed to: Planelopnik, EAA, AirVenture, Oshkosh, Ford GT, Raptor, GT350, F-22, F-35, B-52

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It was a banner year at EAA AirVenture 2015 and one of the best I’ve experienced in my 20+ years of attending.

Below are a few of my favorites out of the 400+pictures I took. I’m not exactly thrilled at how many of them turned out. The filter I (stupidly) used on many of the later ones is too saturated and it didn’t really come across until I had dumped them from my iPhone to my computer. Also, I played around with manual focus more than usual and it resulted in a number of the images being slightly out of focus. Oh well, that’s what I get for using a potato and not more serious equipment. Live and learn.

Anyway, on to the photos...

My lede image: the world’s only airworthy Consolidated Vultee PB4Y-2 Privateer. Hopefully more restoration is in store as she was pretty bare and a little rough.

Warbirds

(captions are below the subject image)

A beautifully restored B-25 from the Texas Flying Legends

Immaculate Goodyear FG-1D Corsair

P-40K Aleutian Tiger

The Allison V-12 in the P-40. One of the exhaust outlets looks to be missing.

An actual Mitsubishi A6M2 “Zero”. Very rare.

This C-47 was slated to be rebuilt as a Basler Turboprop conversion until someone did some research and discovered that it had participated in D-Day and a number of subsequent European operations. It’s currently being fully restored to WWII condition.

A DeHavilland Mosquito. Made mostly of wood, there is only ~250lbs of non-engine metal in the whole plane.

The instructions on the Mosquito look to be hand-painted.

A row of B-25s

A beautifully restored Douglas A-26 Invader

The P-51D Sierra Sue. She is unique in that she has been restored to authentic “new” condition. That means that she looks as she would have when she rolled out of the factory, not necessarily in perfect shape like many restorations.

An example of the authenticity of the restoration. These are the markings that would have been on the aluminium from the supplier, Alcoa.

A Spanish-built HA-1112, which was a licensed version of the German BF-109. This one has been made to look like a -109, but with a Rolls-Royce Merlin instead of the Daimler-Benz 605A.

An incredible P-51B. The level of perfection on this was staggering.

A field of Mustangs. Somewhere around 15-20 were at Oshkosh.

The Hun. I never thought I’d get to see an F-100 Super Sabre fly. This thing is amazing.

The USAF spared this F-4 from drone duty long enough to fly it up to Oshkosh. Since she’s slated to be blown up sometime soon, she was in pretty rough shape.

Grumman TBM Avenger painted to look like the one former President George H.W. Bush flew in WWII.

The Privateer. I didn’t even know one of these still existed, let alone that it was airworthy. This one flew many years as a water bomber after WWII.

The world’s only (for the moment) flying B-29, Fifi .

The C-47 was positioned perfectly for some great twilight shots.

A list of all of the operations that the C-47 took part in. It would have been a travesty if she’d been converted to a turboprop.

Modern Stuff

A Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier

This Harrier is well-worn.

The Harrier during its vertical-flight demo. Always fun.

The F-22 Raptor. Only the 3rd time it’s been to Oshkosh.

The mighty B-52H. This was her first (and possibly only) visit to Oshkosh. Special accommodations had to be made to make room for her to land.

The BUFF’s bicycle-style main gear.

Look closely. The B-52 crew jokingly asked for a homebuilt aircraft award application card.

This Pruis dwarfed by the tail of the B-52 struck me as beautifully ironic.

The F-35 making its Oshkosh and civilian airshow debut. She’s bigger than she looks in pictures.

The F-22 and F-35 were at AirVenture for almost the whole week and had a 24-hour guard of USAF reservists with loaded M4 carbines and Beretta 9mm sidearms. They were super nice and willing to talk, though.

B-52 with the Goodyear blimp Wingfoot One in the distance.

The F-22/-35 being guarded and lit-up made for some nice photo ops after the night airshow.

!!! UNKNOWN HEADER TYPE (MULTI-LINE BREAK?) !!!

Saw this immaculate GMC Typhoon on the way up. It had a very loud turbo, which sounded awesome.

An Honor Flight that took off from AirVenture earlier in the day gets sprayed by the water cannons upon return.

The new Raptor in the Ford tent.

Following the tradition of making special edition Mustang to be auctioned off, Ford made the Apollo Mustang. It was signed by members of the Apollo 13 mission (included Gene Kranz) and sold for ~$230,000.

The new GT. It was a PITA to photograph with the dim lighting and black wheels.

GT350. Sadly, I didn’t hear it run.

Funny story. The face detection on my camera apparently thought the tail lights looked like faces.

Model T rides

I don’t know which organization owns this or what it is (looks like an Oshkosh truck chassis), but it is huge.

Those are all skydivers. A world record was set on Friday for largest formation dive with 108 participants.

EAA stretch Beetle with a trashcan in the hood.

The Lincoln Continental concept.

Focus RS

Underneath the Raptor.

For Sweden > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 13:11

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We will all miss the Mad Dog but this seems extreme

ttyymmnn > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 13:14

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That engine is supposed to be upside down.

ttyymmnn > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 13:14

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I’m jelly.

Jcarr > ttyymmnn 07/27/2015 at 13:16

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It was awesome. It has a very unique afterburner. There’s a big of a delay and then, bang! I have a video I’ll upload soon.

ttyymmnn > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 13:17

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Great photos, particularly the twilight shots of the C-47. Nice job.

Jcarr > ttyymmnn 07/27/2015 at 13:19

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Thanks, I learn a little each time. Someday I’d like to get a nice camera, but for now the old iPhone will suffice.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 13:22

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DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 13:23

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If I’m not mistaken the two biggest non-engine bits of metal in the Mosquito are the landing gear castings.

Chris Clarke > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 13:27

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I wonder if this is from the collection Connie Edwards that appeared in the movie Battle Of Britain that was recently auctioned off?

http://planelopnik.kinja.com/barn-find-mess…

I must have passed right by this without noticing.

Jcarr > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 07/27/2015 at 13:28

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Yes, I should have clarified that bit.

Jcarr > Chris Clarke 07/27/2015 at 13:31

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Not sure, there wasn’t anyone around to answer questions so I just snapped a few shots.

BrainForest > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 13:39

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Whoa... Patriot vs. Scud demo up above?

FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 13:43

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the fact that they are going to blow this up makes me extremely sad.

FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 13:45

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amazing. probably my favorite plane in inventory.

Jcarr > BrainForest 07/27/2015 at 13:49

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Haha, no. Just an aerobatic performer in the distance.

FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 13:49

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my favorite photo of the bunch. Thanks for sharing!

Jcarr > FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 07/27/2015 at 13:49

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Me too, I love the F-4.

Jcarr > FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 07/27/2015 at 13:50

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No problem, knowing that I’m going to share to Oppo makes me want to take more and better pics.

whoarder is tellurium > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 13:55

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Wow, this would’ve been the year to go...

I dun missed the big one. Cot damn.

Great pics, Jcarr.

McMike > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 14:05

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It’s funny how relative “Modern” is.

There were only 25-30ish years between WWII aircraft and the Harrier, but 48 years have passed since the Harrier was introduced.

Great photos.

The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) > ttyymmnn 07/27/2015 at 14:16

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That makes two of us.

f86sabre > For Sweden 07/27/2015 at 14:22

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Come visit us, we have plenty.

f86sabre > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 14:23

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Who has an F-100? We need to be friends.

Great pics. I love that you stayed until evening. That is the best time to be at Oshkosh.

Jcarr > McMike 07/27/2015 at 14:25

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Thanks! Yeah, I was especially struck by the fact that the B-29 and the B-52 (which were parked next to each other part of the week) had their first flights only 10 years apart. That blows my mind.

Jcarr > whoarder is tellurium 07/27/2015 at 14:26

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Thanks, it was a big one!

Jcarr > ttyymmnn 07/27/2015 at 14:27

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Yeah, I wonder how much of a pain it was to fit the Merlin in there.

Jcarr > f86sabre 07/27/2015 at 14:30

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Dean Cutshall. Insert link function won’t work, so here: http://www.f-100.org/hun035.shtml

My favorite time of the day to be down there is around dusk. The lighting is great and up until a few years ago when they started doing concerts, there were relatively few people around so it was easy to take pictures.

ttyymmnn > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 14:38

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Now that I look more carefully at it, are you sure it’s a Bf 109 and not a Hispano Ha 1112 ? It’s probably much easier to cram a Merlin into a plane like this than a Bf 109 where the engine was originally inverted.

Jcarr > ttyymmnn 07/27/2015 at 14:41

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Yeah, it’s a HA-1112 that they’ve made to look like the -109.

ttyymmnn > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 14:43

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Did you edit your post, or did I just fail at reading comprehension the first time I read it?

Jcarr > ttyymmnn 07/27/2015 at 14:54

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I regret to inform you that it was a reading fail.

Would’ve been awesome if it was a real -109 :)

ttyymmnn > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 14:55

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Oh well. Wouldn’t be the first time. :D

WhiskeyGolf > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 15:04

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Great photos, it’s like we’re back at the show. It’s remarkable how many different planes have basically 100% of their remaining flyable numbers at the show.

Dusty Ventures > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 20:02

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“my 20+ years of attending”

And now I hate you

Dusty Ventures > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 20:07

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Engineer’s wet dream

Jcarr > Dusty Ventures 07/27/2015 at 20:14

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Been going since I was 8 :)

Dusty Ventures > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 20:15

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Even more hate

coqui70 > Jcarr 07/27/2015 at 20:30

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It’s America!

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Jcarr 07/28/2015 at 16:02

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It’s crazy how far nozzle design made it in the five years between the first flight of the F-100 and the first flight of the F-4 that you have pictured later.

ETA: Excellent pictures too, thanks for posting.

polarbexer > Jcarr 07/30/2015 at 17:34

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Some of my pics from my first year working there. Good times.

Jcarr > polarbexer 07/30/2015 at 17:37

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Awesome! I bought a new camera that year and it crapped out on the first day so I only ended up with a handful of pictures (luckily got some of the A380).

How many years have you worked in the tower? I love listening to the ATC.

polarbexer > Jcarr 07/31/2015 at 12:51

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I got to go twice but had been selected to go four times. Staffing issues at my home facility precluded me going, so I quit applying since staffing has gotten worse.