KidZone
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

The Oregon International Air Show is the largest air show on the West Coast. Each year, near the end of August, flight afficionados from around the region gather in the small Portland bedroom community of Hillsboro to enjoy the aerial festivities. I had thought about attending the show before but it wasn't until we experienced a B-2 stealth bomber flyover at the Rose Bowl Parade on New Years Day that the air show became a priority.

The show runs two and a half days, the half-day being Friday evening when a free KidZone is set up next to the Military Village. We showed up when the gates opened to give a Certain Boy maximum time on the play structures. It had rained earlier in the afternoon leaving everything wet but that didn't slow him down at all.

So Many Places; So Little Time
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

Wrong Way
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

Practicing For His Wipe Out Audition
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

Down the Slide I
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

Down the Slide II
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

Down the Slide III
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

Military Village
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

The Military Village consisted of a collection of fighter jets, helicopters, planes, and other vehicles along with recruiting kiosks and information stations. NASA had a big semi-trailer with an exhibit inside but we didn't get to see it. The line was too long.

In the Cockpit
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

We could sit in the helicopter but not in a nearby F-15. Bummer for me. I'd have been pushing the little kids out of the way to sit in that thing.

Future Military Aviator?
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

The Show Begins
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

The light was gorgeous as the show kicked off. It had rained on and off during the day so we weren't sure what we would be getting this evening. It was perfect.

When I reserved our seats online, I was assuming we would be in bleachers. The front row was booked up so I chose the back row thinking we'd be able to stand without blocking anyone behind us. It turned out not to matter. In fact, our seats were ideal. We were on the end making it easy to get in and out; and we had great access to all the nearby food stands.

The New Camera
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

A week earlier we had given Lewis a camera, an Olympus Stylus Tough 6000, for his birthday. This was his first chance to really take it for a spin. He hadn't yet perfected his technique.

That's your finger you see hanging down in front of the lens, Little Man...

Capturing the Action
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

Up, Down, and All Around
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

Robosaurus
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Friday, August 28, 2009

The final act of the evening was an unexpected one: Robosaurus. None of us knew exactly what we were looking at as we sat in the dark and caught sight of a giant dinosaur-like silhouette rolling down the runway toward us. Its blue lights and red eyes hinted at its size but it wasn't until it let out a roar and breathed a little fire that we realized we were looking at a ginormous mechanical creature of destruction. It put on quite a show.

F-15 Eagle
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

These two images of an Oregon Air National Guard F-15 Eagle—this one and the next—are my two favorite images from the show. The jet flew by at low altitude and then went nearly vertical up through the clouds. It was very loud, very fast, and very impressive.

Going Vertical
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The Collaborators
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The air show featured a number of prop planes doing aerobatic stunts and manuevers. This group of four calls themselves The Collaborators. The lead plane, the red biplane, is Challenger, piloted by Sean Tucker. I came into the airshow thinking biplanes were old school; this biplane was high tech.

The Collaborators II
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The Collaborators III
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Devoted flight photogs would look at this image and know that I'm an air show newbie. When photographing planes and helicopters, one wants the props or rotors to be a little blurred to convey the sense that they are in motion—as opposed to this shot where it appears that all four engines are stalled. The shutter speed for this shot was 1/6400 of a second. I would guess that's at least ten times too high. The trick is to choose a speed at which the plane is sharp but their props are blurred.

The Collaborators IV
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The Collaborators V
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The Collaborators VI
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

One of The Collaborators' most mind blowing manuevers was to accelerate nearly straight up and, when their planes could take them no higher, tumble back down toward the ground. I'm talking head over tail and side to side. It was completely off the chain. If I were participating in this manever, you could identify my plane by the trail of vomit. How do these pilots stay oriented?

Challenger
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Glider
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Gray on Gray
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

MiG-15
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The MiG-15 was the first great Soviet fighter jet. The Allies weren't even aware of its existence until a dramatic debut in which it strafed a B-29 over North Korea and then disappeared before anyone could figure out what it was.

This jet was advanced and very fast—faster than anything the West had flying at the time. Ironically, the West—specifically Great Britain—gave the Soviets the jet engine technology to make this plane possible. Aviation-history.com puts it this way:

While the Soviets were having their developmental problems, the British on the other hand seemed to be years ahead of everyone. The Jumo and BMW engines the Russians had captured in Germany were rather primitive when compared to England's Rolls-Royce jet engines in the late part of 1945. And just as it appeared the rest of the world was about to leave the Soviets far behind in the race for a more practical jet engine, fortune truly smiled on the Reds.

In Britain, Clement R. Attlee of the socialist Labor Party was elected Prime Minister in 1945. Attlee, being somewhat naive about the Russian brand of socialism, immediately set about improving relations between Britain and Russia. At the invitation of Attlee, Joseph Stalin sent a team of scientists and engineers to the Rolls-Royce factory to study the design of the superb "Nene" jet engine. Arrangements were made for the Soviets to manufacture the engine in Russia under license from Rolls-Royce. They also took several Nenes with them when they returned to Russia. The Russians wasted little time in copying every detail of the engine and appropriating the design as their own, calling it the "Klimov RD-45" with no regard at all being given to the licensing agreement with Rolls-Royce.

Way to go, Great Britain.

Jelly Belly 1942 Interstate Cadet
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The Jelly Belly Cadet's claim to fame was being able to land on a moving platform. In this case, it was a platform mounted above a Chevy Silverado pickup. The pilot succeeded on his fourth try.

A Precision Landing
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Boeing (McDonnell-Douglas) C-17 Globemaster III
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The amazing thing about this C-17 was that it could actually stay airborne. It was huge. It flew by on its way to a much higher altitude where it would drop off the U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team.

Robosaurus Returns
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The skies appeared appropriately ominous as Robosaurus returned for a Saturday afternoon performance. A series of vehicles had been positioned along the edge of the runway; the giant machine worked its way from one to another, leaving a path of twisted, smoking debris in its wake—to the delight of kids and adults alike.

Robosaurus v. Chrysler
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Robosaurus Turns Hard Top to Convertible
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Robosaurus Breathes Fire
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Robosaurus Finishes Off Another Victim
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Crowd Pleaser
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

F/A-18 Hornet Emerging From a Vapor Cloud
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

It would be hard for me to imagine more perfect weather for an air show than what we experienced over the course of the weekend: cools temps combined with layers of huge, three dimensional clouds that ranged from bright white to ominous gray with plenty of blue sun breaks for variety. The level of humidity was also perfect, a factor that affects the formation of vapor halos around aircraft as they approach the speed of sound.

F/A-18 Hornet Approaching at Near Supersonic Speed
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Watching this F/A-18 Hornet approach us at near supersonic speed was particularly cool because of the vapor halo that kept forming around it. I always understood this to be the predictable result of an aircraft nearing the speed of sound. This turns out to be incorrect. The temperature and humidity have to be just right for the vapor cloud to appear.

National Geographic's website explains it like this:

Despite its name, the sonic boom cloud doesn't always come with a sonic boom, and it's not a shock wave of the sound barrier being broken. The clouds only occur in unique weather conditions, when aircraft fly fast enough to cool the air around them, causing moisture in the air to condense into clouds. These halos of vapor appear for only a few seconds when aircraft reach speeds just below or just above the speed of sound (741 miles an hour/1,193 kilometers an hour).

This blog post contains footage showing the phenomenon occurring during one of the F/A-18's flybys.

Challenger Performs a Flyby
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Sean Tucker brought the Challenger down to earth to perform a stunt in which he flew under a banner. This close up view makes it easy to see that Challenger is far from a WWI-era biplane.

Ed Hamill's Dream Machine
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The other biplane at the show was Ed Hamill's red, white, and blue Dream Machine, sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Reserve.

Here They Come
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds were both the climax and the finale of the air show. They were over an hour late which only increased the level of suspense for the thousands of show goers scanning the horizon for any sign of them. When the fighter jets finally arrived, they came from behind the crowd with little warning.

There They Go
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The U.S.A.F. Thunderbirds have their own announcer and a soundtrack that plays over the P.A. system while they perform—not that you could hear anything over the din of the six Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcons. Like the other jets we had watched over the course of the last day and a half, they were fast and loud; what really set them apart was the absolute precision of their flying. The intricate maneuvers they performed were similar to many we had witnessed earlier in the day by high tech prop planes—but performed at near supersonic speeds. Wow.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane!
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Four Jets in Tight Formation
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Up, Up, and Away
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The weather conditions are still perfect: Bright white plane; dark gray clouds.

Afterburner
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Jet Silhouettes
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Back For More
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

Together Again
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009

There are six U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. Whenever we noticed that one or two had broken off from the group we made it a point to keep an eye on our "six". (Note the use of cool pilot lingo.)

The interesting thing about this shot for me is how clearly one can make out all six pilots. This was not possible during the actual show.

Into the Blue
Oregon International Air Show—Hillsboro, OR
Saturday, August 29, 2009