McConnell Air Force Base has an open house scheduled Saturday and Sunday this weekend (Sept. 25-26) for those in and around Wichita, or anyone wiling to travel here for the airshow. Thunderbirds Demo team, Hornet F-18s, various air show performers, deep-fried corn dogs with mustard, ketchup, and soy sauce, sunburn, poodles, lawn chairs, lost kids, you know the drill. Weather is looking excellent for Wichita this weekend.

McConnell Air Show Sept. 25-26

I wish I could make it up there Cub, but no chance this time around
Take some good pictures though and grab one of the Hornet demo for me will you? If it is the West Coast team, and you talk to them, pass me their names.

USMCFLYR

Will do! I am flying skydivers most of the weekend but I'll see if I can get something.

Here's what I got. I actually did not make it the show and the weather turned out be kind of fussy. Thunderbirds did not fly Saturday and I didn't check on Sunday. A lot of people turned out for the Open House, however. You can kind of see it in these pictures if you look real hard.

My uncle lives close by, Ret. Air Force, he worked on the B-1B's. When I was 7 or 8, I got an up close and personal look inside one.

The B-1 program was almost mothballed by Carter in the late 1970s. But the B-1 platform is generally so flexible that another batch is currently being considered. Like the B-52, the B-1 turned out to be far more useful than originally envisioned. Originally it was a high-altitude supersonic bomber made to supplement the subsonic B-52 but its role has changed many times since then and it mostly is used as a low-altitude bomber now. I think you will still see the B-1 in service 50 years from now in one version or another.

Wiki on B-1