Warbirds Over Wanaka is a show which is run every two years (on even years) near the town of Wanaka in Central Otago, New Zealand. It has gained a reputation internationally as being one of the better warbirds shows and about 100,000 people attend each time it is run. Classic Fighters Omaka is also run every two years, on odd years, at Omaka air field near the town of Blenheim in the the north of the South Island.
The New Zealand Air Force displayed several aircraft, including the A-4 SkyHawk jet fighters which did a re-fueling run. When the A-4 made its surprise fast, low run over the runway a Falkland Islands war vet commented he last heard that sound when the Skyhawk was flown by the Argentinean Air Force against the British forces!
The old prop-driven planes are great but there is nothing like a few ultra-noisy, fast jets to really liven things up! Here are three older jets flown at the display: the MiG 15 which was one of Russia's first jet fighters, the Dragonfly a Vietnam era US trainer and fighter, and the Vampire an early British fighter first flown during World War 2 and widely used by various air forces since.
The Polikarpov fighters were one of the features of this years show. These stumpy little machines were great to watch in the sky and even more fun to watch landing! Landing them seemed to be the only thing that created a bit of a challenge for some of the pilots!
The Mark XVI Supermarine Spitfire is powered by the Packard Merlin 266 engine developing 1580 hp which drives a 4 blade wooden laminate propellor. The wing span is 36' 10", the length 31' 1" and the height 12' 7 3/4". The aircraft weighs 7,500 pounds. Maximum speed is 416mph, ceiling 43,000 feet and range is 430 miles. The armament is 2 x 20mm cannons, 2 x 1/2 inch machine guns and up to 1000 lb of bombs can be carried.
With a 400 hp Vedeneyev VMKB M-l4PF nine cylinder radial engine and an ultra-lightweight body, the Sukhoi SU-31 has the best power to weight ratio of any piston engined aircraft in the world. Watching this aircraft almost "hanging" in the air on its prop is incredible.The aerobatics at the show probably involved stresses of about +11 and -9 gs but the aircraft is built to handle over double this (unfortunately, the pilot isn't!)
5 aircraft were displayed. Click a thumbnail image or title above to see information about the aircraft.
I usually write a blog post about once a week. The latest post can be viewed here: Manufactured Outrage: We might be beginning to win some battles, but the war is far from over. (posted 2024-12-17 at 19:19:15). I do podcasts too!. You can listen to my latest podcast, here: OJB's Podcast 2024-12-04 Avoid Microsoft: If you don't really like computers much you could make things a bit better for yourself..
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