Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 4 generations of Fighters flying together! great pictures

'Heritage Flight', sorry if this has been posted before.

Pretty cool perspective, P-51 looks so tiny.



More pictures here

http://johnsantic.com/airplanes/heritage.html

That is pretty neat, and a P-51 isn't a tiny plane when you stand next to one.

most excellent

Good flying, too. That had to be an experience for the jet pilots to match the P51's flight.

This video always amazes me:

But has the most class.

Years ago at the Wilkes-Barre airshow, 2 P-51s, one in D-day stripes, flew with an F-15. Those boys were tucked in so tight on that jet, it looked like junior Thunderbirds. As they neared the end of the flight line on the last pass, those Merlins roared at WOT and, as each wing tipped up to peel away, the 15 lit the burners and bailed out and up at about a 70 degree angle. And the crowd went wild.

Cool but i wonder why they didn't have an F-86 in the formation?

The only thing I don't like about this story is that I wasn't there to see it.

I went out for a flight yesterday in a little C-172 and as I approached the run up area two A-10's were finishing their run up, then a T-38 taxied by to take off, I was third in line to take off behind them. Both of them absolutely dwarf a 172, I wanted to go find the farthest corner of the run-up area to hide so they wouldn't see me. The back seat guy in the T-38 gave me a wave as he passed by, probably from a feeling of noblesse oblige.

But is pretty damn cool to watch them from such close range as they drop their canopies while lining up, then hear the roar as they open those throttles and take off.

Many years ago as a student pilot flying a 172 on a cross country near Shaw AFB; ATC told me that a pair of F-16's were headed my way on a reciprocal heading 500 feet below me. As they passed under me, both gave me a thumbs up. Wished I had a camera with me. It is not often you see a 172 flying higher than an F-16.

When I see these formations with jets and a prop plane, I always wonder if it's tough for the jets to slow down enough to fly in formation with a prop job. Granted, the P-51's pretty fast, it's got to be challenging. Any comments from any of our members who know more about this than I do?

No F-86 in that photo for shame!

I would have liked to see something between the P-51 and that
F-4. Not sure what that would be, maybe an F-86 Sabre?


edit to add: Opps, didn't see ^^ that response before.

I half way expected an ISIS teenager, his father, grandfather, and great grandfather after being tossed out of a Jordanian plane at 10k.

What do you mean, the jets slow down...the Mustang is in the lead!

The P-47 Thunderbolt was my favorite.

My late dad was a supervisor in the P&W tool room where they made the engines.

Just found this !

It can be. The controls get mushy at lower speeds making it a bit more difficult to be precise in flying formation. I looked up the performance numbers for the P-51 and they're pretty good, 315 kt cruise speed according to wikipedia. I didn't know it was that fast, that's fast enough for decent control authority in an F-15, F-4, or F-22. I flew the F/A-18 in the Marine Corps and I always hated tanking off of a C-130, wallowing behind one of them at 210 kts while tanking was a pain.

Here is an amateur video of an F-15 and 2 P-51s doing a different airshow. The formation break-apart takes place at about 4:00 into the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMkfRBHuH9w