Wardogg
Meat Popsicle
Back when the Air Force was cool.Yup. It would be perfectly fine to do a flyby down the runway in machines like this at 500 AGL+ with a wing dip, mild banked turn or regular climb. Trying to turn these types of jets into fighters, which they are not, maneuvering them far beyond their normal envelope, leads to the most exciting part of their show being a smoking hole in the ground. The risk just isn’t worth the reward.
In the late 1980s, Strategic Air Command wanted a demonstration team to be like Tactical Air Command’s Thunderbirds. The Thunderhawks were created, that would consist of a KC-135 and a B-52 putting on a show of a series of flybys with loose formation and a simulation of air refueling. During practice at Fairchild AFB (same place the bottom picture of the Holland crash was taken), in 1987, the KC-135 was maneuvering to the six o’clock of the B-52 to rejoin with them and take lead from them. The KC-135 hit the wake turbulence of the B-52 at low altitude while in a turn to parallel their course, Rolled in the wake and impacted the ground, killing all four crew onboard and one person on the ground. In an amazing irony, twist of fate, and Finial Destination-esqe occurrence, the guy on the ground who was killed, was the boom operator of that KC-135 demo team bird. This boom operator had called in sick for that flight and was replaced by another boom operator. The first boom operator was driving around the runway perimeter road headed to the base clinic for an appointment after being taken off the flight, when the KC-135 doing the practice hit the wake turbulence, and rolled into the ground, impacting the prior boom operators car and killing him along with everyone else on the plane.
View: https://youtu.be/hvvoKch5gAI?is=zjCCQzbkVGbCACln
Reminds me of a certain change of command in 2009…..
View: https://youtu.be/GbgKydEjoSc?is=idIa3Sw38EJ4X9D3