Air Expo 2010

 

Air Expo 2010 was going on at Flying Cloud Airport over the weekend and was hosted my Wings of the North. It was a beautiful day on Saturday, perfect for this kind of event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wings of the North is a non-profit 501(c) (3) organization founded in February of 1998. Our mission is to preserve and present aviation history.

Their long term goals include plans for a major, world class museum and educational facility in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. This will involve a tremendous amount of effort in fundraising, acquiring aircraft and memorabilia and creating displays and events for the public.

 

 

 

Wings of the North is dedicated to presenting and preserving aviation history. To accomplish this mission we put on air displays, symposiums, school presentations, as well as many other programs. To keep our mission a reality, we need your help! We are looking for monetary donations, equipment donations (copy machines, office equipment, tools, and computers), an postage to keep our operation going. We are also looking for donations of aviation artifacts such as flyable aircraft of any type, restoration project aircraft, aviation memorabilia (military aviation uniforms, wings, maps, and photographs), and hangar space.

 

 

 

I was fortunate enough to meet a few of the pilots at the Expo.

This is Col. Bob Wright, he as had an exciting military career including shooting down 41 aircraft. I don’t think he was much for getting his picture taken though! LOL The look I got when I asked was one of hesitation. I do thank him for letting me capture him with his airplane!

 

 

 

 

This is Scott. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him. The photographer hired for the event showed up and wanted to take a bunch of different poses. After waiting a few minutes I had to move on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You could purchase a ticket to ride the B-17, they were a mere $425. That was a little steep for my pocket book. And for that much I would much rather fly in the T-6, which is just enough room for 2. That, to me, would be much more worth the price!!

 

 

 

 

The aircraft I found most interesting is the Grumman Avenger, which is a torpedo bomber. The Avenger was the first design to feature a new wing-folding mechanism created by Grumman, intended to maximize storage space on an aircraft carrier.

 

 

 

 

There were three crew members: pilot, turret gunner and radioman/bombardier/ventral gunner. One .30 caliber machine gun was mounted in the nose, a .50 caliber (12.7 mm) gun was mounted right next to the turret gunner's head in a rear-facing electrically powered turret, and a single .30 caliber hand-fired machine gun mounted ventrally (under the tail), which was used to defend against enemy fighters attacking from below and to the rear. This gun was fired by the radioman/bombardier while standing up and bending over in the belly of the tail section, though he usually sat on a folding bench facing forward to operate the radio and to sight in bombing runs.

 

 

 

The North American Aviation T-6 Texan was a single-engine advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces, United States Navy and other air forces of the during World War II and into the 1950s. Now this is one I’d pay the money to ride in!

 

 

 

 

A few local celebrities made a showing. LOL

TC, the Minnesota Twins mascot and Mudonna, St. Paul Saints mascot.

I saw them driving by and when TC saw me put my camera to my eye he stopped and pointed at me and told Mudonna to look at me too.