B-2, Tora-tora-tora at 2010 Scott Afb Air Show, Sep 11 & 12

The US Navy’s Blue Angels Demonstration Team leads the activities at the Scott Air Force Base Airpower Over the Midwest Air Show 2010 scheduled for September 11 and 12, in Southern Illinois. Flying F/A-18 Hornet all-weather fighters, the team will demonstrate the capabilities of the aircraft in a dazzling aerial display as thousands watch below. It’s the first appearance of the Blue Angels at the event in more than 10 years.

The Blue Angels won’t be alone. It’s a huge event which will feature numerous other noteworthy appearances.

A B-2A Spirit stealth bomber will do a flyby on Saturday only. During missions over Serbia B-2s flew round-trip from their Missouri airbases to the Balkans, with mid-air refueling.

The air show will also feature the daily pyrotechnic-packed performance by the Tora-Tora-Tora  recreation of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, featuring Japanese warbirds such as the Zero. The airrcraft are movie veterans, built for the film Tora, Tora, Tora, after which they were donated to the Commemorative Air Force, and more recently featured in the movie, Pearl Harbor. The group participates in only 12 to 16 shows a year and this year, Scott’s air show is one of them.

Another veteran warbird that will flyover and be on ground display will be a B-25J Mitchell medium bomber. It was the B-25 that took part in the carrier-borne Doolittle raid on Japan just a few months after the Pearl Harbor attack. A TBM Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber, used by both Navy and Marines, is another warbird scheduled for a aerial performance as well as ground display.

Of more recent vintage in the warbird department is a Vietnam-era Soviet Mig-17 flown by Randy Ball which will put on a flying demonstration with another featuring its American opposite number, the F-4 Phantom which shot down more than 100 Mig’s over North Vietnam. The Mig-17 will also be available for close view on the ground.

There will also be aerial performances by a Korean War-era T-33 Shooting Star (training version of the Korean War era P-80 fighter), C-17 Globemaster, C-21A, the A-10 Thunderbolt Demonstration team, and the F-16 Falcon Demo team, as well as the Pitts S2S civilian aerobatic aircraft.

Cover via Amazon

Since Scott AFB is a center of military transport, there will be a number of huge transports on static display on the apron itself in front of the hangar area, open fore and aft so that visitors may walk through the cavernous interiors.　

The award-winning U S Army’s Golden Knights will put on parachute demonstrations.

Military reenacters with gear and even vintage military vehicles will be bivouacked beside the air strip. In the main hangar are numerous informational displays on topics including the air park located at the base’s Shiloh Gate, the Tuskegee Airmen, and air ambulances.

Hours are 9am to 5pm daily.

Admission is free, parking is free, and shuttle buses are provided. Many people may find it preferable to park at a Metrolink light rail station parking lot at one of the stops along the route and take the train to the Shiloh Gate at the eastern end of the system where they can enter.

More information is available at the air show’s homepage at http://www.scottairshow.com/index.html