Saturday, November 5, 2016

Wings Over Houston 2016...

Click any picture to enlarge...935 photos...
Comments are invited on individual pictures, or entire album...You may comment anonymously if you choose...

The show for 2016 was a hit, although we noticed a visible reduction in static displays this year...Notably missing were the WB-57's, the Super Guppy, Uncle Ho's Nightmare and the Collings Foundation's F-4 Phantom...

The Navy's Blue Angels were back after regrouping following the tragic death of one of their outstanding pilots...Fat Albert was in for depot maintenance work and upgrades, and was unable to be at this show..."Tora Tora Tora" was great as usual...

I'll add more pics as I process them...I still have a couple thousand I haven't looked at yet... Many are unusable due to the smoke generated by the performers...


Out of 2,887 photos, 935 were salvageable...All have been uploaded...

154 photos added 11/7/2016...

172 photos added 11/8/2016...


175 photos added 11/11/2016...

133 photos added 11/12/2016...

A Navy P-8 Poseidon...New for this show...






The USAF brought a new Lockheed-Martin F-35 Lightning II...







Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet...




















Made in the shade...A really big shade...




















The US Coast Guard (our oldest seagoing armed service) was celebrating its 100th year of flight...










Just a standard camera focal test...Nothing to see here...


































































































































































Time for another focal test...
















































































































































































I managed to capture a sequence in which the TBM Avenger stopped in the taxiway directly in front of me, and turned toward the audience, folded then unfolded his wings and continued on to his hardstand...










There are some people that wouldn't get out of the way if you paid them...











The source of a lot of the smoke in the pictures...













A lot of the aircraft had their smoke generators lit...It makes for a spectacular show, but it doesn't do a thing for image quality...So I figure I might as well make the best of it...
































The smoke was a real detriment to photographers, but it makes a spectacular show...



























The Curtiss P-40 Warkawk was always one of my favorite fighters...































Banzai!...












Trace the civilian tail number to find what aircraft this replica was built from...

























Of the bombers, only Texas Raiders and two B-25's flew this weekend...











An added attraction this year was this P-63 King Cobra, and its predecessor, the P-39 Aircobra...American pilots weren't particularly keen on the P-39, although Russian pilots swore by them as tank killers against the German Panzers...




























Tarheel Hal is a Republic P-47D Thunderbolt owned and flown by the Lone Star Flight Museum...A real workhorse...












This Messerschmidt ME-262 is one of four built this century by the Messerschmidt Company in Germany...It is owned and flown by the Collings Foundation...























Texas Raiders CAF...








Bell P-63 King Cobra...





























Grumman F7F Tigercat...




























Just another camera focal test...Nothing to see here...


































The Handbuilt Oracle ...




Lockheed-Martin F-35 Lightning II...


Lockheed-Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon...



























This year's Heritage Flight...F-35, F-16 and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt...















Peeling off...

















Team AeroShell...