Page 10 - Aerotech News and Review, Oct 19 2018

Marines host 2018 Miramar Air Show
by John Battey
staff writer
The U.S. Navy flight demonstration team, the Blue Angels, were the head- line act at the 2018 Miramar Air Show Sept. 28-30. The U.S. Marine Corps’ newest aircraft, the F-35B, was also on hand.
The F-35 is the world’s first 5th gen- eration stealth fighter and is manufac- tured by Lockheed Martin. The aircraft performed a demo of its STOVL capa- bilities and was also on static display during the show.
The demo was performed by VMFA 122 — “The Flying Leathernecks” — stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona. It is the third opera- tional squadron in the Marine Corps to fly the F-35B.
The Three-day airshow opened Friday morning with several civilian aerobatic performers, several warbirds
spectacular event. The show featured the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wings MAGTF simulated combat assault, and a rare demonstration by the U.S. Air Force U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane from Beale AFB, Calif. The U-2 was flown by Lt. Col. Scott “FONIX” Collins who pre- viously served in the Marine Corps.
The world-famous U.S. Navy six- plane Blue Angels, celebrating 31 years of flying the F/A-18 Hornet, were the headline act and flew its entertaining performance all three days, much to the delight of the hundreds of thousands of airshow fans in attendance. The team flew a spectacular 45-minute routine showing the raw power and high per- formance, with 32,000 pounds of thrust ,of the F-18.
The Blue Angels were formed in 1946 and have performed all over the world. Their 2018 schedule has them performing at 60 air shows at 32 dif- ferent show sites.
The Blue Angels show off the four ship Diamond 360 formation.
Photographs by John Battey
A CH-53E Super Stallion, two UH-1Y Venom helicopters and an MV- 22 Osprey fly in tight formation.
The Blue Angel six-plane delta formation makes a flat pass toward the crowd, with smoke on.
including the P-51 Mustang, T-6 Tex- an, T-28 and an SNJ, and Shockwave — the three-engine Jet Truck making a dash down the runway at over 350 mph. The day also included a perfor- mance from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing Band.
The theme of this year’s open house was celebrating 100 years of women in the Marine Corps. The air show, ad- vertised by the Marines as the largest military air show in the United States, proved once again to be an absolutely
The Marine Air-Ground Task Force demonstration is the one portion of the airshow that separates the Miramar show from all the others.
The four-element firepower demon- stration features a simulated combat assault attack from the air as well as on the ground. The explosive display of Marine Corps capabilities included the tiltrotor MV-22 Osprey and fixed- wing aircraft F/A-18 Hornet attack
See MIRAMAR, Page 12
A Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet from the VMFA - 314 Black Knights gets Vapor
on a high-speed pass. A UH-1Y Huey/Venom helicopter hovers as troops depart the aircraft by rope.
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