I don’t go to the Dayton Airshow every year, and I am neither an airplane or military buff. I still enjoyed the show.
Samuel Morse in 1844 when opening the telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington keyed in the phrase “What has God wrought”. What would he have said about today’s technology?
The precision flying at speeds Morse could not even have imagined leaves one admiring both the machines humans make and the humans who pilot them.
You do witness people doing things they probably shouldn’t do: “Look, Mom, no hands!”
You also see some things that not so long ago people would have said you couldn’t do: yes, he’s flying that helicopter up-side-down.
You have to admire what things can be imagined, engineered, built and made to work. An air show is full of education for those who like to do the math, or the science, or the engineering, or the aerodynamics. It probably inspires more than a few to look into these kinds of careers. The military does a lot of recruiting at the show as well. Dare devils get their inspiration here too!
There is also artistry and choreography…
… and not a little pyrotechnics.
There is a lot of history presented throughout the show, military and American. This year’s show featured, “Tora, Tora, Tora”, a re-enactment of the 7 December 1941 Japanese surprise attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval Base which brought America into WWII.
And there is a fair amount of patriotism and pride in being American. History, as they say, is written by the victors.
You can see my collection of photos from the 2011 Dayton Air Show at http://www.flickr.com/photos/frted/collections/72157627147481357/. Click on any one of the thumbnail photos and they will take you to different sets of photos where you can then enjoy a slideshow of all the photos in the set.
My favorite photos are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/frted/sets/72157627149911703/ just click on the “slideshow” button above the thumbnail photos to see the full sized photos.