At the bigger air shows, event planners hope to be able to pull together a crowd favorite called a heritage flight. Heritage flights feature a grouping of airplanes from older (warbirds) to newer (jets) flying together, thrilling the crowds. The CAF Red Tail Project’s P-51C Mustang Tuskegee Airmen has participated in a number of them.
This grouping consists of the Project’s P51-C Mustang, a P-38 Lightning, an F-86 Sabrejet from the USAF Sky Blazers- precursor to the Thunderbirds – and an A-10 Thunderbolt aka the “warthog.” [The Tuskegee Airmen are probably best known for flying red-tailed Mustangs, but they also flew P-38s and P-47s, which were known as Thunderbolts, too, a good 30 years before the modern version came out.]
It takes a lot of piloting skill to slow down the jets and speed up the warbirds so they can fly together over enthusiastic crowds!
In this picture, the F-86 has gone solo, leaving the Mustang, the Lightning and the Thunderbolt.
Now it’s just the Mustang and the Thunderbolt – the propellered warbird and the jet.
These photos were taken by the USAF. I’d like to thank Max Haynes for sharing them from his extensive collection of photographs. Max is a talented graphic designer and aviation photographer in his own right. He has done amazing work for the Project such as designing brochures, creating the annual calendars, and working on the new web site (hopefully to launch in May or early June) and RISE ABOVE mobile exhibit You can see his photography and graphic art work at his web site: maxair2air.com.
The Commemorative Air Force’s Red Tail Project is a volunteer-driven 501c3 non-profit organization. For more information, please visit redtail.org.
