61st Annual Chicago Air & Water Show
By Larry E. Nazimek
This year’s airshow was characterized by too much of the water in the air instead of Lake Michigan. In other words, it rained.
This is a two-day airshow, where the first day saw intermittent light showers, but they were not enough to shut down operations, except for when lightning was seen in the vicinity. With all of the exhibits and vendors, however, attendees still had plenty to do. The Red Arrows were able to get in their complete show, but by the time the Blue Angels came in, the clouds were low enough to restrict them to mere flat passes.
On Sunday, thunderstorms, bad enough to result in damage nearby, caused the start of the show to be delayed by two hours. The Red Arrows got in their complete show, as did the Blue Angels, just before the clouds returned.
The show always starts with the singing of our National Anthem, as members of the Army’s Golden Knights, with one member displaying our Flag, descend, with the Firebirds Delta Team circling the jumpers. A tandem jump is made with a VIP or sports star. For Saturday’s show, it was hockey star, Chris Chelios, who played many seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, ending his career with the AHL Chicago Wolves, wearing a Chicago Blackhawks jersey. For Sunday’s show, it was members of the Blue Man Group.
This airshow is conducted over Lake Michigan, obviously safer than flying over land. Cities employing this type of setup include Milwaukee, St. Louis (over the Mississippi River), and Huntington Beach, Calif. for the Great Pacific Airshow.
Since the Glenview Naval Air Station closed and the ANG and AFRES units left O’Hare Airport, Chicagoans are no longer able to see top military aircraft on static display, but this year, the Army brought over an Apache Longbow and a Blackhawk medevac helicopter, where they also had three of their very newest surface vehicles, a mobile field hospital, and some of their newest equipment and weapons.
There was the F-22 Raptor Demo, where this stealth fighter’s thrust vectoring capability was demonstrated, showing how this plane can do things that were previously deemed impossible. It can practically stand still, pointed straight up, one of several things that would cause the engines of older fighters to experience compressor stalls. Experience with an older generation fighter makes one especially appreciative of newer aircraft capabilities. The F-16 Viper Demo was also impressive.
This year, the Air Force brought their A-10 Thunderbolt II Demo team, consisting of four A-10s. They made passes flying formation with a KC-135 Stratotanker and then made simulated strafing runs on the beach.
The Marines brought two V-22 Ospreys. After flybys, they demonstrated their ability to hover, rotate while hovering, and move sideways. Many in the crowd had never seen a tilt-rotor plane.
Among helicopters were the Coast Guard’s MH-65 Dolphin, the Army’s Apache and Blackhawk, the Chicago Police Dept. Bell 206L-4 Long Ranger, and the Chicago Fire Dept. Huey (that they use primarily for water rescues on the Lake).
When Sean D. Tucker flew his Oracle Challenger III biplane last year, it was supposed to have been part of his final tour with the plane, prior to its delivery to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, where it will be hung upside down, since this plane was known for Tucker’s unusual aerobatic flight and not merely something that flew straight and level. This year, however, he brought it back, doing the stunts for which he is famous, but he did say that it would be going to the Smithsonian after this season. He also said last season that he would be coming back as a formation team, and he did keep this part of his word, flying a second routine of the day with Jessy Panzer flying an Oracle Extra 300L alongside his Oracle Challenger III.
Other civilian performers included Bill Stein, Matt Chapman, Mike Mancuso, and Susan Dacy. Stein, Chapman, and Mancuso flew together as the Firebirds. (Rob Holland normally flies the fourth plane in the group, but he was participating in the World Aerobatic Championships in France).
The Navy’s Blue Angels were not the only military jet formation team this year because the RAF’s Red Arrows also thrilled the crowd. This is the team’s second visit to North America, but when they came in 2007, they performed primarily on the east coast.
Their 2019 tour began at Halifax, NS, followed by an airshow at the Gatineau-Ottawa Airshow, QC. Chicago was their next stop. Other performances include Boston, Atlantic City, New York, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, Toronto (Canadian International Airshow), Dayton, St. Louis, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria, San Diego (MCAS Miramar), San Francisco, Long Beach, the Great Pacific Airshow (Los Angeles), and Rapid City. 2019 is the 100thAnniversary of the RAF and the 55thof the Red Arrows.
The team flies the BAE Systems Hawk T1 that the RAF uses in pilot training. Variants of the aircraft are used for aggressor squadrons, light attack, and U.S. Navy pilot training, where the plane is made in St. Louis under contract by (former) McDonnell Douglas, now part of Boeing, where it has a tailhook for aircraft carrier landings. The T1 version does not have aerial refueling capability, so in coming to North America, after taking off from their home base at RAF Scampton, they had to refuel at RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland; Keflavik, Iceland; Narsarsuaq, Greenland; and Goose Bay, Nfld.
Red 1 (team leader) Sq. Ldr. Martin Port said that while they have performed in numerous locations throughout the world, this type of venue, flying overwater with skyscrapers along the shore, was a first for them.
The Red Arrows enhanced their display with smoke trails of red, white, and blue. The smoke trails are made by releasing diesel into the exhaust, where the hot exhaust vaporizes the diesel, which re-condenses into very fine droplets that give the appearance of smoke. Dyes are added to produce the red and blue colors. The diesel is stored in three tanks on the plane’s underside. The tank for the white smoke is larger than the other two, giving five minutes of white smoke, and one minute each of red and blue.
With nine planes in the formation, they are able to fly silhouettes of various things, including the Lancaster bomber, Concorde SST, Apollo Lunar Module (to commemorate the 50thAnniversary of the first manned lunar landing), and the Phoenix. One spectacular formation consists of seven planes trailing white smoke, while the other two perform rolls around the seven, with one trailing red smoke and the other trailing blue. They gracefully transition from one formation to another while performing loops and turns.
If you have any interest in airshows, and the Red Arrows are performing near you, then you must see them. It’s a performance you won’t forget.
As is the case in odd-numbered years, the Show ended with the Blue Angels performance. Those who waited through the showers were glad they did.
