T.O.M.

After seeing a few years of the warbird action at Geneseo, I decided that the opportunity to see 8 flying B-17's was just too much to give up. So, I headed down to the outskirts of Detroit, to see the Thunder Over Michigan airshow, hosted by the Yankee Air Museum.
The theme was the heavy bomber, and with 8 B-17, a B52 flyby, a B-25 and a huge (And I've got to say, strange looking!)B-24,



along with some more modern fighter jets, it lived up to its billing.

Arriving in time for the Friday re-enactors parade, a trip into the downtown of Bellevill led to the start up of the parade. Lots of American, British and German troops, and even a few civilians were on hand. It was lead by a honour guard from the police, and headed down the road.











Saturday we arrived just before the gates opened, and were quickly in a parking spot and checking out the soldiers. Great effort by these guys, with weapons, uniforms and vehicles.









Next was into the airport itself, with what is probably a typical event requirement for the Americans:




Once we were in, it was of to see the bombers up close. Nearly all were completely accessible, with no barriers. Some offered tours for a few dollars.



During the airshow, the did a continous loop across show center.













At the end, the 2 flights of four flew directly at the audience, and most landed afterwards, but three stayed up with a mustang to do a missing man pass



A ground battle, with air support opened the show,



and then the 3 Mustangs of The Horsemen thrilled the audience with the close formation flying.



The F-18 and F-18 were also on hand.





The Canadian Harvards joined up with there brothers, the US T-6 Texan, part of the SCREAM 'N REBEL team.



The best deal of the day for me came at the end of the show. A guy had a scissor jack, and for 10 bucks, you could go up and get a great view of ramp. Unfortunately at the start of the show, he drove away on us! So we waited til the end of the airshow, took a break, then tracked him down again. We ended up between the two groups of B-17's, and then drove down to one end to get some more shots. He felt bad about what happened (turns out someone was supposed to use the jack for the re-enactor battle, but the guy never showed!!), so he gave us an extra long view, and moved us around the ramp! Most of the crowd had left by then, and the light was from behind, so it was a great opportunity to get some neat shots.







I'm uploading a bunch more pictures at my picture web site.

Also, here is a youtube video of the B17's on the ramp, along with a P51, B24, and B17 on the taxiway.