It's very rare to see any sort of military aircraft in this area other than once in a while catch a C-17 flown by the NY Air Guard out of Stewart Airport in Newburgh. They used to fly C-5's but they were retired.
But when I was a kid and Stewart Airport was Stewart AFB different goodies all the time. Biggest (and loudest) was multiple flights of C-119 Flying Box Cars. Upwards of a dozen or more flying at low level such that the house shook. There was also a squadron of B-57's, the US version of the British Canberra Bomber, until they were sent to Vietnam where they promptly got shot to hell. The Army had flights of CH-21 "Flying Bananas" which are the twin rotor ancestor to the Chinook. They also got sent to Vietnam. Assorted F-86, T-33, F-101 and did catch an F-104 once. When I was in 6th grade our class took a guided tour of the base and saw a lot of the same aircraft up close.
And up until 1962 the U.S. Navy still used blimps for coastal patrol. Once in a while one would fly up the Hudson River. Now that duty is done by the Coast Guard in Dolphin helicopters.
The "powers that be" considered Western Australia to be a bit of a backwater, so there weren't that many military 'planes around, apart from the fairly regular sight of DH Vampire two seat trainers from Pearce RAAF, but we had the occasional visit from other things.
In the late '50s, we lived for a time in a caravan, AKA "house trailer" (yes, "trailer trash!"
), at the beach.
On one occasion, the Brits sent a couple of Canberras on a round the world " show the flag" trip.
The Pommy pilots, being Poms, took advantage of the chance to do some low flying.
Hence, as a stripling lad, I was entranced by the sight of a Canberra just about skimming the waves, as I stood on a sandhill looking down at the top of it!
We had our own Fleet Air Arm at the time, so from the same vantage point I had the pleasure of watching a Westland built Sikorsky S55 go rattling over, & also the seriously wondrous Fairey Gannet.
Funny we never seemed to see any Navy jets though, either ours, the RN, or the USN during their visits.
RAAF Neptunes popped up from time to time, & few USN things like Super Constellations.
About a year before the Canberra incident, still at the beach, but slightly inland in a real house, WA had a visit from No 77 RAAF squadron, who also played about at low level.
Interesting to watch Gloster Meteors disappearing behind sandhills (Gee, they were nice looking aircraft--quite obsolete by then, of course)
In 1962, when we had the Commonwealth Games, the RAF sent across an Avro Vulcan, which did a flypast with a bunch of Avon-Sabres (an adaptation of the F86, but with RR Avon engines).
Even having seen photos, I didn't realise how big a Vulcan was till then!
Fast forward a lot of years, & in 1971, I was driving through Scotland.
The shape of an aircraft suddenly loomed up through the fog, roared across the road,& disappeared over the next fog shrouded hill.
I recognised the distinctive shape of an F111, but hadn't till then, been aware that they were active in the UK.
Fast forward again to immediate post-911, when I worked for a time at the University of WA.
They had a real "lunch hour" & I had the habit of going for a walk to burn up the extra time.
Suddenly, there was the roar of jet engines flying very low.
My first thought was that a big jet was crashing into the river, so I hurried to get a look at that part of the Swan.
It turned out to be a bunch of RAAF Hornets, in company with a gaggle of RNZAF R4D Skyhawks, taking part in an unannounced exercise, again flying very low.
More recently, the search for MH370 offered military aircraft watchers the chance to see the aircraft of a number of nations, most notably those of China, not that anyone would celebrate such a tragic event.
Being old & doddery, I didn't see any of those planes, anyhow!
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Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread (Read 14820129 times)