Rocky Mountain Airshow - LOTS of Photos

[goamules]

Great shots. I too love the T-33 and P-80. And flew in a SNJ/Texan for my 50th.

[Bob Salomon]

Great shots. I too love the T-33 and P-80. And flew in a SNJ/Texan for my 50th.

When we were selling NASA Rollei 6008 cameras for the Space Shuttle they had two astronauts fly up to Newark Airport for some training and I met them outside the old terminal. Since they flew up themselves they were in NASA jump suits.

After we were through for the day I drove them back to EWR and went into the terminal with them. On the runway was a beautiful NASA T38 with both cockpits open. As they got into the plane it started to rain but Newark couldn’t find a starter cart for the engines. This ticked off the full bird pilot! While they sat on the runway, with the cockpits open it kept on raining and the Colonel was getting more and more aggravated! Finally the airport staff found a starter cart they could borrow and got the plane started, but this was more then an hour on the tarmac and with the pilot yelling.

It was interesting to listen to as they had the audio on all this time inside the FOB where we were watching.

He finally got takeoff clearance from the tower and, after a short taxi that T38 took off almost vertically and disappeared from site while the tower were yelling and swearing at him for the stunt! Great fun to watch, not a very safe procedure though,