Our Town of Apple Valley has a brief rainy season which is the late summer Monsoon. We didn't have any rain all year, and the Monsoon didn't arrive until early this morning, the date of the annual Apple Valley Air Show! We decided not to attend this year, although watching the WW2 Warbirds zoom by the spectators at 50 feet above the ground is always exciting, as are their diving and formation flying demonstrations. These planes are from the "Planes of Fame" Air Museum, about 50 miles away, and they consist of a P-51 Mustang, an F4U Corsair, a P-40 Warhawk, a P-38 Lightning, and a B-25 Mitchell Light Bomber. There are also aerobatics and sky diving and parachuting events, as well as RC flights and model displays in the hangars. This is the first time in about 15 years that we haven't attended the Air Show. Bombs Away... Hal
@Hal Pollner Several years ago the Confederate Commemorative Air Force (I think they're called) flew a number of WW-II fighters, as well as "FiFi", then the only remaining operable B-29, in to Bullhead City/Laughlin Airport. The B-29 was an amazing sight to see! They have retrofitted it with newer, modern engines (if such a thing exists in reality, ~ 3000 HP radial engines). I perceived that the B-29 looked fully as large as the first 737 jets Boeing came out with in about 1970. Frank
I've seen a couple of their shows. Formed in Alabama in the early 1950s, they began as the Confederate Air Force. In the early 2000s, they changed their name to the Commemorative Air Force due to criticism that the Confederate Air Force name suggested slavery and racism. The Confederate Air Force was intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but wasn't a good fit in the PC 2000s.
@Ken Anderson Their "shows" include clambering in and around the aircraft, a fact of great relevance, for me, of course! They offered rides in the B-29, which had been fitted with I don't know how many seats, but I figured it's take-off weight was nowhere near Enola Gay's! Climb rate for a piston aircraft of such size was noteworthy. I did not take a ride: 150 dollars. The next visit, two years later, they brought a B-25 Mitchell bomber. Frank
@Hal Pollner True enough! Very few in-line engines were used as they are far more difficult to air-cool. The "Liberty" engine, I think it was named, was an-inline, but liquid-cooled, as I recall, but do not remember the aircraft, possibly WW-I? I remember it from my youth, kinda cloudy by now. Frank
The legendary P-51 Mustang used a V-12, with the prop turning at half crankshaft speed, and so did the P-40 Flying Tiger and the twin-engine P-38 Lightning. All used the Packard Merlin engine, which was liquid-cooled. The British Spitfire also used that engine, and the Germans used a similar mill in their BF-109 Messerschmitt. That's all... Hal
@Hal Pollner "The Allison V-1710 aircraft engine designed and produced by the Allison Engine Company was the only US-developed V-12 liquid-cooled engine to see service during World War II" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_V-1710 The first engine used. Rolls-Royce followed.