LAST EDITED ON Jul-28-03 AT 01:24 AM (CDT) The Central Arizona Control Line Club recently collaborated with the City of Avondale in an outstanding community outreach program, a 2003 Fourth of July control line demonstration.
As always, the Fourth of July is a time to pause and remember those who fought and sometimes died in order that we can enjoy and celebrate freedom on a summer evening.
The CACLC flight demonstration included a couple of flights in tribute to the heroes of American aviation past--gone, perhaps, but not nearly forgotten.
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| LeRoy Black's B-25 stunt ship waits on the ramp for its time to participate in the airshow. The North American B-25 is probably best remembered as the medium bomber that Jimmy Doolittle audaciously selected to take off from the deck of the aircraft carrier Hornet in a daring raid on Tokyo in the dark early days of 1942. |
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| LeRoy gets the second engine going on his stunt version of the B-25, while Nick Lemak holds. |
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| Not even Jimmy Doolittle would take a B-25 down the runway inverted at ten feet, which is a sight the visitors to the City of Avondale celebration were fortunate to witness. The distinctive twin put on a rousing performance until one engine quit, which made further aerobatics an injudicious prospect. |
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| The Curtis P-40 is another symbol of the insightful use of air power in desperate circumstances. The P-40 is most often associated with Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers, an all volunteer outfit that used their vastly outnumbered and obsolecent fighters to great advantage in China before Pearl Harbor brought America into the war.. |
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| A P-40 fly-by is a sight to see and a tough thing to capture with a camera. Unless, of course, you're Elwyn Aud, who can capture these shots much better with his rig than I can. |
For the remainder of the story:
Introduction
Aircraft on Display
Shots of the Crowd
Remembering Veterans
Airshowmanship
First Flight