Airfest!
Every year on Father's Day, the Port of Bellingham stages an Airfest at Bellingham International. Usually, the weather is windy and cold as a mother in law's kiss. This year, it was perfect. In addition to lots of old airplanes, there are old cars and motorcycles. Most of the old cars are the same ones I documented at the Ski to Sea show, so I saved my Memory Stick for the planes. With one exception. This first one's for Art Jacobson.
This is the Border Patrol's Newest toy. It's very quiet for an eggbeater and has no tail rotor. Instead, it has a directable fanjet in the tail boom to counteract the torque of the main engine.
A 1946 Piper Cub, older than I am.
John Mrazek completes an inside loop in his T8F.
The business end of a T8A showing off its nine cylinder radial.
The Royal Canadian Air Force showed off its latest equipment.
Our secret weapon in Iraq...
This is a P-51B owned and flown by former astronaut Bill Anders. Anders and some of his friends have established the Heritage Flight Museum, which will eventually, we hope, be housed at Bellingham International. The P-51 was known as the 100 day wonder because that's the amount of time that it took from conception to test flight. It was toward the end of WWII and we were in a hurry. It was one of the fastest prop driven planes ever built, topping out at 437 mph. It was powered by a 16 cylinder Rolls Royce Merlin engine that produced over 1600 shaft horsepower. You may be able to tell that this is one of my favorite planes of all time.
A WWI era Jenny complete with laminated wooden prop.
A Grumman Bearcat configured with folding wings for use aboard an aircraft carrier.
Canadian aerobatic team The Fraser Blues assemble in formation.
3:00:40 PM 
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