Page 5 - Thunder & Lightning Over Arizona - Davis Monthan AFB 2025

Desert lightning news Thunder and LighTning over arizona March 22 & 23, 2025 5 www.aerotechnews.com/davis-monthanafb Facebook.com/DesertLightningNews
Smoke-n-Thunder Jet Shows
The Jet Car has a Westinghouse J34-48 engine, originally used in the North American Buckeye T-2A aircraft. It has 10,000 horsepower and 6,000 pounds of thrust with an afterburner with 4130 Chrome-moly construction, on a 240-inch wheelbase echassis.
The front wheels are 15-inch diameter, 5-inches wide, and the back wheels are 15-inch diameter, 10-inches wide. The body is aluminum and magnesium, with a custom-built single seat cockpit designed and built to fit the driver.
The car weighs 2,300 pounds and is 26 feet long. It uses two 20-gallon fuel cells; 40 gallons of diesel fuel is used in each performance with acceleration speeds approaching 400 mph.
The safety equipment includes two ring-slot para- chutes (one 14-1/2 feet and one 16-feet) and one on-board fire extinguisher system.
An 80-foot truck and trailer transport the JetCar and are part of the display. Additionally, the truck is equipped with a power unit that is used to start the JetCar.
Tom Larkin (Mini Jet Airshows)
The “star” of Mini Jet Airshows is a modified Sub- Sonex Jet, otherwise known as JSX003. The SubSonex is an Experimental Jet that comes as a kit from the Sonex factory in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It weighs 500 pounds, goes up to 300 mph, and it is fully aerobatic.
This particular aircraft was the first kit of its kind ever sold and flown, and it has been flying for approxi- mately 8 years. The jet is powered by the PBS TJ-100 engine from the Czech Republic, and at full throttle it can produce 258-pounds of thrust while burning 45 gal- lons per hour of jet fuel. As beautiful as the jet is, there is no paint on it. It is completely wrapped in a vinyl covering, like a show car. The smoke system is custom, and it puts out a smoke trail from start to finish.
During the show, pilot Tom Larkin will perform a cross section of maneuvers that he routinely used while instructing and flying fighters in the Air Force. Mini Jet Airshows is the culmination of a 30-plus year dream to own and fly a Mini Jet in airshows.
If you’ve never seen a jet doing a full aerobatic rou- tine in a small, confined space, you’re in for a real treat!
Vicky Benzing (Plum Crazy)
Courtesy photos
Built in 1944 shortly before the end of World War II this beautiful P-51 Mustang fighter never left the U.S. before the end of the war. It was transferred as part of a block of surplus fighters to Sea Island (Vancouver) Canada in 1950 where it served in the Royal Canadian Air Force until 1958 when it was sold. The airplane was converted from a military fighter to a civilian airplane, and Al Paulson (founder of Gulfstream) purchased the airplane in 1964 for Clay Lacy to race in the inaugural Reno Air Races. Al painted the Mustang in purple colors after he accidentally received 1,500 gallons of custom purple paint by mistake. Clay flew Plum Crazy at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada, from 1964 to 1972, winning the National Champion- ship in 1970.
Clay purchased the airplane in 1967 from Al and after many U.S. air races and air shows, sold it to friend Vicky Benzing in 2019 after 55 years of ownership. Repainted in its original purple racing livery and with a freshly overhauled engine, Vicky campaigned it to a 4th-place finish in the Unlimited Class at the final National Championship Air Race in Reno, Nevada.
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