Washington DC Area - V-E Day Commemoritive Flyover

A celebration of the forces of tyranny being vanquished by the forces of freedom in Europe 70 years ago, aircraft from WWII will fly in formation over the nation's capitol today.







https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...i-planes-bombers-v-e-day-washington/70987166/

https://ww2flyover.org/

Greg

I had hoped to go down there to see this, but it didn't work out. Hopefully, someone will post video, even though its not the same as seeing/hearing all those radial engines...

A group of co-workers and me are going up on the roof to see what kind of photos can be had. One fella is taking the company camera (which is all souped-up) and he's very good with it. We're only a couple of blocks from the Mall along the flight path.

A few that my co-worker shot. The buggers came right over us. I was hoping for a little more to the side.

A few more.

Nice!

I like the B-29 shot and the one with the four Mustangs.

So, how did it sound??

Greg

Any day you see WWII planes is a good day.

I've always liked the F4F Wildcat/Martlet (2nd set, 1st picture).



I had to Google the plane with the yellow belly (1st set, 10th pic):
Beechcraft C-45 Expeditor

GregGleason said:

Nice!

I like the B-29 shot and the one with the four Mustangs.

So, how did it sound??

Greg

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The Mustangs were the most malicious sounding. The P-38 was almost stealth, there was so little noise. Over-all, damn nice. The sounds were quite possibly the best thing. Very interesting how different they were from one another.

The first B-17 came by with three different fighters in a chevron, behind it. I got a twinge and choked-up a bit as they turned, thinking of the fighters attacking the bomber. It had to be very tough to be aircrew on one of big boys. I can't imagine the reality.

Watched a Helldiver break formation and head for Reagan Airport. I was informed later that they ran into some mechanical difficulties and had to put it down quick. Luckily Reagan was closed for the fly-by and about a mile or so away. Evidently they caused quite a stir when they landed there.

foamy said:

The Mustangs were the most malicious sounding. The P-38 was almost stealth, there was so little noise. Over-all, damn nice. The sounds were quite possibly the best thing. Very interesting how different they were from one another.

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Well, the Mustangs are V12 Rolls Royce engines dumping their exhaust ports directly out the side - no muffling whatsoever. They have a very unique sound characteristic, because that's combined with whine from the supercharger. The P-38, OTOH, is turbocharged. The exhaust from both Allison V12 is routed back along the fuselage boom to the turbocharger before exiting the airframe. Turbos, actually, make excellent mufflers. However, the radial engines in the other aircraft have a sound characterstic that can't be mistaken for anything else. I wish I could've been there. We've got a regional airshow in a couple weeks here. Featured act this year are the Blue Angels. My office is spitting distance from the runway, so I'll likely get distracted in the days leading up to when aircraft arrive and practice. But it won't be the same thing as this event in DC was...

Thanks for sharing the photos Foamy. Every year at the Columbia Cup Unlimited Hydroplane races we get an airshow with various different WWII and modern military aircraft, its awesome. IIRC the exhaust ports on them P-51 also contribute a small bit to the speed which is why they are angled and shaped the way they are, something like 10 mph.

Unlimited hydro's? Sure could use a thread with photos of that event!

rharshberger said:

Thanks for sharing the photos Foamy. Every year at the Columbia Cup Unlimited Hydroplane races we get an airshow with various different WWII and modern military aircraft, its awesome. IIRC the exhaust ports on them P-51 also contribute a small bit to the speed which is why they are angled and shaped the way they are, something like 10 mph.

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Yeh, back when Boeing was working on the 707, Tex Johnson rolled the "demonstrator aircraft 367-80" while flying over the races . The Boeing Execs:dark: weren't too happy about it

these are some fantastic pictures....all of the old war birds are just beautiful....so many classic aircraft ..the Mustang, Corsair, Hellcat, Wildcat, Zero, ME-109, FW190, Avenger, Lancaster, Mosquito, Spitfire, B17, 24, 25 , 26 and B-29.....incredible! I got to see a Mustang fly up here in NJ last weekend at Millville....that plane put a heck of show, actually flew directly over head while I was walking in the parking lot....just an unmistakable sound to the airplane....looks cool and sounds cool!