Mountain Home's airshow featured the Air Force's Thunderbirds. We went to the Saturday show and realized that the Thunderbird weren't performing. They were in Reno, NV for their airshow on Saturday and then flew into Mountain Home at the very end of the Saturday show to do their orientation flying before their actual performance on Sunday. So we did get to see the Thunderbirds fly in formation across the airfield and fly around quite a bit. We also explored some of the other aircraft. Some of my favorites:
James and "The best thing in the air" The F-22 Raptor. This one is based out of Alaska.
Another picture of the Raptor - pretty intimidating military fighter jet!
The Air St. Lukes helicopter - this one doesn't have a tail rotor! It uses a vent exaust system to do the job of the tail rotor.
The predator - an unmanned aircraft for observation and advanced scouting. They sometimes have air-to-ground hellfire missiles. Pretty cool!
F-18 Hornet used mostly by the Navy and Marines - we saw the pretty version in Twin Falls when the Blue Angels performed!
This particular Hornet says "409 Nighthawk Squadron Activation - July 6, 2006." My mom's birthday and the day James & I got engaged. So I had to take a picture!
This is the C-17 Globemaster - the enormous cargo transport plane. We toured one that had some statistics about how big it is and how much cargo it can hold. The sign said it could carry 11 African elephants. I asked one of the airmen if they'd ever transported an elephant. No, but they did transport the whale from "Free Willie" - he said the water in the tank shifted as they landed and the weight and the shifting water broke the landing gear (no harm to the whale).
The white aircraft at the top of this photo is the F-4 phantom - the Air Force's primary fighter jet in the Vietnam War Era. The small aircraft in the center is the P-51 Mustang - from World War II. The gray aircraft at the bottom is the F-15 Eagle - the current fighter jet (until the Raptor phases them out). They call this flight the "Heritage Flight" showing the history of the Air Force fighters.