Blake Hall
It’s one thing to read this blog, grab a bag of popcorn, put your feet up and view our seemingly unending inventory of awe-inspiring military aircraft videos. It’s freaking fantastic — and we ourselves do it all the time. Take a nice long swig on our soft drink, finger on the “play” trigger, eyes as wide as a Chris Christie pant leg as we watch a Blackbird explode out fiery exhaust, a F-35 dance in test, a Harrier hover like a giant metal hummingbird — Lordy, ain’t it grand, Bub?
The thing is though, even at their peak — 1080p resolution — they’re still virtual representations of the actual flying machines, constructed for us through zeros and ones, artificial light, etc. They’re not the real thing at all. And far from it.
But what if we told you that we hold, in our hands, the key to go and see the dashing military aircraft models in the flesh (rivets, bolts — that kind of flesh) and in person? An invitation to get so close to the manmade aerial beasts that you can literally go up to them and touch them AND, in some cases, even sit in their lofty, regal cockpits!?
We’re not pulling your leg. The guide is real and alive and it’ll allow you to gleefully traipse across the country in your aviator goggles and cap, jumping from seeing F/A-18s roaring to F-4 Phantoms booming to F-16s “elephant walking” to B-29 Superfortresses just, well, being big as all hell.
It’s courtesy of the Smithsonian’s Air & Space museum (they know a thing or two about these kind of events shall we say) and it’s broken down beautifully by date(obviously), location, and even the flight demonstration teams that may or may not be performing there on that given day. These include the Blue Angels (United States Navy), the F-35 Heritage Flight Team (U.S. Air Force F-35 that tours with a fleet of vintage airplanes), the Thunderbirds (U.S. Air Force) and the Breitling Team (a Dijon, France-based outfit that flies Czech Aero L-39 Albatros jets).