Dayton Airshow Update

Hi All,

I just got back from the 2003 Dayton Air Show. Totally awesome! I don't
know what was most impressive, so I'll just list what I saw today and you
can decide...

1. Snowbirds, Blue Angels, and Thunderbirds all 2 hours apart.
2. F-18F, F-15C, AV-8B, S-3 demos
3. B-2, F-117A Flybys
4. F-86, P-51, P-47, F4U, F6F Demos
5. B-17, B-25, P-3 Demos
6. Spirit of St. Louis, Ford Tri-Motor, several DC-3 demos
7. Wright B Flyer, Bleriot demo
8. Many Great Civilian Performances
9. Ground Displays: B-1B, A-10, F-16, F-18, F-14, DC-10, C-17, B-52, Super
Guppy, F-117A, Predator, Global Hawk, Luftwaffe Tornado GR1, NASA F-18 (Wing
Warping), T-38, AH-1, UH-1, OH-6, C-141, C-130, P38, Connie and more!
10. An indoor pavilion with full scale replicas (many flyable) of all the
Wright brother's planes/gliders--even bikes & toys they made!

And, last but not least, a Long-EZ with Pulse Detonation Engine!! That's
right: a working pulse detonation engine just like the elusive (mythical?)
Aurora. It was part of a display by AFRL (Air Force Research Lab). It had
the strangest design I have ever seen. This "contraption" was literally
hanging off the bottom of the fuselage. It was made up of (no kidding!) a
Hirth F30 2-stroke engine, the cylinder head off a GM Quad4 engine, some
bicycle chains/sprockets, 4 straight steel exhaust tubes, and ran on Avgas.
An engineer there told me that "The exhaust velocity is Mach 5 and Rutan is
going to fly the other one just like it out in California soon." As for the
technical side of it, I'm an engineer, but this guy was talking way over my
head...didn't seem like he got out the lab much!

BTW, NASA also had a fuel cell plane there, but I'm not sure if it had flown
yet.

All in all, it was the best air show I've ever seen--and I've been to a lot
all over the world. This was the best depiction I've ever seen of just how
far we've come in 100 years.

Today was a good day!