May 8, 2015 - VE Day Flyover in Washington, D.C.
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This Friday, May 8, was the 70th Anniversary of VE Day: the World War II Allied victory in Europe. In recognition, a group of private citizens organized a fly-over of the National Capital area by 50+ World War II airplanes. I took the day off from work to go see it. Bruce R. was going too so we joined forces and headed down. It was a beautiful day for it. Bruce thought the best place to see the flyover would be a spot on the south side of the Anacostia River across the Nationals baseball stadium. It sounded good to me so that's where we headed.
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| Looking across the Anacostia River at the Nationals baseball stadium. I don't get down to DC very often and this is the first time I've seen it. It opened in 2008. |
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Other people had the same idea. We were located at Poplar Point. One nice thing about the spot was that you could easily park here. (although we didn't know that and parked a short walk away)
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| Bruce dialing in his video-camera. Later on, the following video he put together would be better that what I saw real-time. |
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The flyover started around noon. The first planes to arrive were the L-series observation and liaison planes. Aeronca L-3, Piper L-4, and Stinson L-5: basically high-wing, tube and fabric general aviation airplanes used by the military in the war. They could land and and takeoff in short distances from on unprepared landing strips.
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| A close-up of Nationals stadium. |
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| Then came six Stearman biplanes in a delta formation. The military used the Boeing Stearman Model 75 as its primary trainer in WWII. |
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| The Stearman's looked good in their yellow wing - blue fuselage paint scheme. |
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Then came eight T-6 Texans which was the main advanced trainer during WWII. My Dad, a Navy pilot, learned to fly in this plane after WWII.
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| North American Aviation built over 15,000 of these. You still see lots of them at airshows and fly-ins. A very successful design. |
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Two P-40 Warhawks.
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| Then came three B-25 Mitchell medium bombers. This versatile airplane served during WWII from start to finish. |
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| Also built by North American Aviation, 9,800 were built. Some were given to the Royal Air Force and Soviet Air Force as part of the Lend-Lease program. |
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| One of my favorite planes, the PBY Catalina. Considered obsolete at the beginning of war, the "Cat" proved useful and effective at maritime patrol, anti-submarine warfare, search and rescue, etc. throughout the war. Around 3,300 were built. |
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An F4F Wildcat fighter and SBD Dauntless dive bomber, the U.S. Navy's primary carrier airplanes during the critical first two years of the war.
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| Zooming in. The Dauntless was also considered obsolete at the beginning of the war but turned in stellar performances in the 1942 carrier battles and at Guadalcanal. The Wildcat had a tough time against the Japanese Zero but gave as good as it got. |
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Two F6F Hellcat fighters came next. The Hellcat appeared on the scene in 1943, replacing the Wildcat. Totally outclassing the Zero, it was a great plane for the Navy.
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| The unique twin-engine P-38 fighter. |
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| A B-24 Bomber followed by three P-51 fighter escorts. |
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| Quite a few police were on hand. |
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Lots of people ended up watching the show.
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| The three Mustangs are still following the B-24. |
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Then came another four Mustangs in tight finger-four formation.
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| A better look at the finger-four. |
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Next a couple of B-17 Flying Fortresses.
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| View from astern. |
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| Close-up. |
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| Two C-47 Skytrains, the military version of the famous DC-3. Over 10,000 C-47s were built and are still in use today. My Dad flew one in the Navy as late as 1979. Eisenhower said the C-47 was one of four inventions that won WW-II for the Allies. The other three being the Jeep, the two and a half ton truck and the bull dozer. |
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An SB2C-Helldiver followed by a TBM Avenger. Both were carrier aircraft.
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| The final plane and start of the show, the only flying B-29 SuperFortress bomber: Fifi. |
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Fifi flew almost directly overhead our position adn I was able to get this good shot.
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| Departing. |
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I pulled the following pictures taken by various others I pulled down from Facebook.
The B-29 Fifi flies over the World War II Memorial on the Capital Mall.
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The B-24 Liberator with three P-51 Mustangs in trail, over the Washington Monument.
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| Mustang noses. |
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I believe the fighters staged at Culpepper Airport, shown here. The bombers staged at Leesburg Airport.
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| PBY Catalina, Bamboo Bomber and T-6 Texans taxiing for takeoff. |
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| Great fighter plane of all time: the P-51 Mustang. |
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Awesome shot of Fifi, the only B-29 still flying.
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| F6F Hellcat, the US Navy's great WWII fighter plane. This Hellcat is painted similar to that of WWII Naval Aviator David McCampbell who was the Navy's leading ace with 34 kills, and third highest scoring US ace. He commanded Air Group 15 on the USS Essex during 1944 and received the Congressional Medal of Honor. An Arleigh Burke class destroyer is named after him. |
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Great in-flight picture of the B-24 Diamond Lil. I saw this very plane as a kid at the 1972 Transpo at Dulles Airport, Virginia. I believe the Confederate Air Force brought their entire contingent of airplanes to that event.
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| Wow, what a view. The B-17 is almost over top the Lincoln Memorial heading up the Capital Mall. |
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| View from the B-17 nose. You can see lots of people on the grass by the Washington Monument. |
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| Watching the two B-17s from a building rooftop. |
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