FighterControl

Both days up in South Dakota for the Open House, which being seldom held (last time back in 2009), was a rare chance to catch some B-1B Role Demo action. This, along with the Dyess 30th Anniversary show in May, made it a good year to see Bones at their two home stations. Up at Ellsworth, the Saturday was a scorcher, while after a night of some (real) thunder, the Sunday had some cloud, so just a few top-up shots from that day. A good quality static line up included the DM EC-130H minus the 'U.S. Air Force' on the forward fuselage (removed for 'discreet ops' according to the crew). Then speaking with the Minot Buff crew, hopefully some good news are the plans for an Open House there next year (August or September), which again hasn't happened since 2009. Very sad news though was the tragic events at the Chicago Air and Water show on the Saturday, which resulted in the Golden Knights team cancelling their Sunday show here, and heading home early that morning. Some shots from the weekend...









































































































































Cheers, Kevin

Seriously good photos, thanks for posting

cracking set of photo`s thanks for sharing

Fantastic set of images and nice to see some B1 action.

Mark.

Fabulous post, mate

Love the Mig shots, but those Bone pics

Thanks for posting

Paddyboy

Magnificent - a base I'd love to visit. Good to see that quite a few Bones were visible over the weekend between the flying display and those on static - would love the chance to see some of those jets up close and shoot the noseart, etc. It's been far too long since UK skies were graced with their presence!

Great work and thanks for sharing.

Nice bones and that Fokker still looks great as well . .

Brilliant subject matter, matched with the weather - totally stunning and thanks for sharing.

Excellent as usual - thanks for posting

Superb Set! Anyone know what the pod is under the B1?

Superb set, the B-1 is just an awesome aircraft!

JONLITE06 wrote:Anyone know what the pod is under the B1?

It appears to be the SNIPER XR Advanced Targeting pod which was integrated onto the fleet back in 2007.

Really appreciate the comments as always chaps
You beat me to it, Nick! As well as now being standard kit on the B-1B, the AN/AAQ-33 Sniper XR is also being integrated on the B-52H fleet.

A fantastic set of pictures. Very

What`s the story behind the green/grey F-86? Never seen that scheme before.

tc2324 wrote:A fantastic set of pictures. Very
What`s the story behind the green/grey F-86? Never seen that scheme before.

Cheers TC, a bit of info on the CL-13 Sabre Mk. 6 N80FS... with spurious serial/code 01675/FU-675 (derived from its c/n), it was restored and painted as such in 2010 and represents an F-86F of the 461st Fighter Day Squadron, 36th Fighter Day Group as stationed at Hahn AFB (and/or Landstuhl AB), West Germany around 1955, with experimental 'Europe 1' camo. The lineage has the squadron badge continuing in service today, with the 461st FLTS flying the F-35 at Edwards AFB!

Still registered to Dr Richard G Sugden, a bit more info on its history and restoration, with one more shot from Ellsworth...
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/jetregis ... 61675.html
http://www.aviatorshotline.com/aircraft ... edge-slats