Air Force Heritage by velocicrapper
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
Continuing the Aviation Series...
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For more images, please visit http://www.warbird-photos.com
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Celebrating 10 years of historic heritage flights, the USAF Heritage Flight program was started in 1997 for the Air Force's 50th Anniversary with the idea of showing generations of aircraft in the US Air force history together in formation. Up until just two years ago, the heritage flights usually included the A-10 Thunderbolt II demonstration team, F-16 Viper demoinstration teams, and the F-15 Eagle and Strike Eage teams representing modern day US Air Force air power along with fighters from World War 2 through Vietnam. Now, the formation of the F-22 Raptor Demonstration team recently has allowed the F-22 Raptor to participate in all heritage flights. Most vintage aircraft that participate in heritage flights include:
World War 2: P-51 Mustangs, P-47 Thunderbolts, P-38 Lightnings.
Korean War: F-86 Sabres, T-33 Shooting Stars
Vietnam War: F-4 Phantom, AD-1 Skyraider
In this shot, from the Edwards Air Force Base, California, Airshow 2006, a 4-ship formation including (clockwise) P-51D Mustang 'Six Shooter', F-15E Strike Eagle, A-10A Thunderbolt II, and F-22A Raptor bank over the crowd in a very tight formation. It should be noted the P-51D Mustang's, a WW2 fighter, size in comparison to the modern day jet fighters.

Comments (12)
a striking shot, and rather unreal - it is amazing that these a/c can all fly at the same speed without blowing a gasket or stalling....
wow, thats a powerful shot!!!
What a quartet! The only other place you'll find a formation like this is hanging from a 13-year-old's bedroom ceiling. Terrific photo and concise commentary from an 'ace' photographer! FIVE STARS, naturally.
Spectacular photography!
EXCELLENT!!!:-)
The P-51 looks tiny. I know F-15's and A-10's are very big for fighters. I guess the 22 is also . Beleive it or not I think the P-51 can fly faster than the A-10.
great.
this is a great shot... outstanding work
Sweet pic, I've never seen these four planes together in one flight like this. Also, while I bet this is just a typo, the F-16 is the Fighting Falcon not the Viper. I hate to be picky, but I'm just that way with planes :-)
Actually, the Falcon has been renamed the Viper as of late. Pilots used to always call it the Viper, but the 'fighting falcon' stuck with the public. From Wikipedia: "Although the F-16's official name is "Fighting Falcon", it is known to its pilots as the "Viper", after the Battlestar Galactica starfighter." As such, it's often refered to as the Viper at airshows. The west coast F-16 demonstration team is called 'Viper West'.
Another cool fly-by shot, Britt! They need to add a SPAD 13 or Nieuport 28 from WWI to the flight, but the other planes would defintitely "fly-by" the slow old timers.
They look MARVELOUS!