Berlin Air Show ILA 2006 impressions (modem burner)

[tgarn]

It was very crowded and the weather was plain lousy! It was cold, there were gusting winds and lots of rain.

But Berlin is always fun and even when slightly hung over from the night before, the fresh air (Jet A1 and Avgas fumes) and several cups of (terrible) coffee soon brought me back to normal condition...:-)

The A380 was one of the stars. The Airbus family demo flights were impressive and the A340-600 pilots impressed me most with some impossible maneuvers that you don't see everyday...
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/1343/a3809lk.jpg

There were several display areas
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2295/disp19gs.jpg

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/1653/disp112wi.jpg

The B-1B is a very loud aircraft - to put it mildly.
http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/7739/b1b5zv.jpg

The friendly B-1B crew was all grins. Maybe they were already in party-mode because their aircraft was only on static display for three days...
http://img419.imageshack.us/img419/4530/b1bcrew7kl.jpg

Maybe not the right candidate for a beauty contest but I like it. The "Aquaglide 2" sure looks Russian...
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/2254/aquaglide219kl.jpg
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/4508/aquaglide2117ux.jpg

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/3998/aquaglide221on.jpg

The oldies: A Dornier Do 24 ATT
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/7883/do24att6ia.jpg

The beautifully restored Messerschmitt Me 109 G6
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/7514/me109g68nm.jpg

...with the original engine
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/1558/me109g619ss.jpg

The (replica) Messerschmitt Me 262 B-1A was a highlight
http://img434.imageshack.us/img434/1633/me262b1a2qv.jpg

The display pilot did a lot of explaining and on the left side some "old eagles" are probably discussing the benefits of the current engines compared to the unreliable old ones...
http://img434.imageshack.us/img434/1589/me262b1a13th.jpg

Sweet sounds! Having started their engines a Douglas Skyraider and a Chance Vought Corsair enter the taxiway to begin their aerial demonstration
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/7271/skyraidercorsair3ck.jpg

...closely followed by a rare Spitfire Mark 19.
A Mustang P-51 was also there but it did not fly. On its way to Berlin it lost its bubble canopy which crashed into a tennis court (nobody was hurt). The pilot did not abort the flight and also did not declare an emergency. Instead he decided to press on because his windshield was still intact. This seems to have caused some concern with some German paper shufflers...:roll:
http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/6987/spit190rb.jpg

The fast movers: Northrop F-5E
The Patrouille Suisse put on a magnificent display of precision flying.
And yes, the pilots had Breitlings on their wrists...:-) (I saw two Emergencies)
http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/685/northropf5e9mn.jpg

There was a small scandal two years ago. When they left the airshow and headed back for Switzerland the buzzed the Swiss embassy in the middle of Berlin as a farewell greeting. They were accused of violating minimum altitude rules, which they denied. Berlin air traffic control tried to prove the violation but the recorded data was somehow "lost". I hope they do it again...:-)
http://img434.imageshack.us/img434/5563/northropf5e21sa.jpg

http://img434.imageshack.us/img434/3634/northropf5e19wm.jpg


The Eurofighter is now active with the Luftwaffe. In former years when it was still a flight test prototype it was displayed several times but in a kind of mild manner. Now it is different. It is a very agile and highly maneuverable aircraft and those two pilots did a great show with a mock dog fight. Impressive!
http://img434.imageshack.us/img434/2899/euro25xl.jpg

http://img434.imageshack.us/img434/5775/euro10kw.jpg

The Mig 29M MOV is an incredible machine. I don't know if the pilot bent the airframe during his high G maneuvers but it was a magnificent display! Some stunts really looked out of this world and the laws of physics did not seem to apply. If there ever is one performing in your vicinity - go see it!
http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/9725/mig29movt6dp.jpg
http://img434.imageshack.us/img434/7776/mig29movt17eb.jpg

http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/6473/mig29movt27ju.jpg

OK, back on topic: Here is one for the Sinners
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/179/sinn9ys.jpg

This French beauty has another French beauty applied on its nose.
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/9204/broussard7yd.jpg

I hope you liked my small report from Berlin.

Best regards,

Thomas

[stuffler,mike]

Great pictorial :-!

[UVox]

very nice Pictures Thomas, thanks for sharing :-!

[robert]

well next year i WILL definetly be visiting my wifes parents in berlin during the air show!!!

[TimeOnTarget]

Thanks for the pics. They are great! Boy, that 380 is huge. I want to fly that airplane one day.

[David Woo]

thanks for sharing with us. One of my favorites events to attend each year is the air show at Edwards Air Force Base here in the California desert, both air force and nasa on one base.
DW

[Crusader]

Thank you very much for the pictures, Thomas ... very impressive! :-)

[Ron Engels]

Thanks Thomas!
Great pictures. Looks like a fun event. And it's nice to see that there are still a lot of people that simply enjoy looking at aircraft.

[john737]

very nice pics! and good to the old 262's back!

Thank!

[JohnF]

Hi -

GREAT pix!

Just one tiny little thing: that last photo isn't a French beauty, but is the Coppertone lady from the 1950s. The little dog was always undoing her bathing suit so that you could see what a great tan she had from her tan lines (Coppertone is a suntanning lotion).

I recognized her immediately from the National Geographic ads that I grew up with (my father has a life-time subscription that was given to him at his birth by my grandfather in 1934, and we still have them all!).

:-)

Where did you get such a great vantage point for the overview photos?

JohnF

[Micha]

Awesome report! I wish I would have had the possibillity to go. :thanks Thomas!

[KVD90]

Great pics :-)

[Bob Duckworth]

Thomas:

Still catching up form my absence.

What great photos! Beautiful work despite very poor lighting conditions. As for the B-1, I crawled into one a couple of years ago. Not much room for the four crew members. It still amazes me how the USAF will never concede to human need in their A/C cockpits. Riding a B-1 for more than a coupel of hours would be a tough job.

Thanks again for the pix.

Bob Duckworth

[tgarn]

Thomas:

Still catching up form my absence.

What great photos! Beautiful work despite very poor lighting conditions. As for the B-1, I crawled into one a couple of years ago. Not much room for the four crew members. It still amazes me how the USAF will never concede to human need in their A/C cockpits. Riding a B-1 for more than a coupel of hours would be a tough job.

Thanks again for the pix.

Bob Duckworth
Thanks All, but honour where honour is due: some of those pictures were official press release. Berlin was fun despite the weather and I even met a German WIS...

Best regards,

Thomas

[Crusader]

Thanks again, Thomas ... have you guys noted the view count of this particular thread? Must be a record of some sort, at least here on Pil-Mil ... :-D

[wolfruediger]

Finally got to see a 262 replica. Great photos. Original 262 that was used for the reverse engineering is at the Willow Grove Naval Air Station in a new museum known as the Wings of Freedom Museum. There is a great story behind the building of 5 of these replicas. Thanks again for the great photos.

[altro]

Thomas,

Thanks for a superb report - for a moment I forgot where I was (at home in front of my computer!). You transported me to Berlin for a great experience - thanks!!! :-!

Cheers,

[BruceS]

Wow awesome pics! Amazing how large the A380 is. Just dwarfs those other a/c and some of them are quite large themselves. thanks for sharing!
Bruce