Air show celebrates aviation’s past, present and future

Date: 5/22/2015

WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE – The Great New England Airshow has always celebrated contemporary aviation with aircrafts of the past and this year was no exception.

During the show, the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor fighter made an impressive debut at the show. Although the plane has been used by the Air Force since 2005, it has never been featured at the show until this year.

A twin-engine stealth tactical fighter, the F-22 thrilled audiences during the media day presentation with a series of maneuvers over the base’s runway.

Climbing high into the sky, the Raptor hung apparently motionless at one point, while at other times it rolled with the apparent ease of a stunt biplane

Much of the performance seemed to be performed in front of a plane that meant much to the base for a key part of its history.

From 1955 until its deactivation and conversion to a reserve base in 1974, the B-52 Stratofortress long-range bomber was the plane most associated with the base. Once again a B-52 was part of the static display of aircraft at the show.

Once considered a classified aircraft, visitors could walk within the plane’s bomb bay and look up into the wheel wells.

The B-52 on exhibit had been flown into Westover from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where a reserve unit uses it.

Capt. James Killian explained the plane was built in either 1960 or 1961 and its nose art noting General Jimmy Doolittle was designed to reflect the history of the plane.

The plane is flown weekly, he said.

Killian said the difference between flying a plane such as the B-52 and a fighter such as the F-22 is the difference “between driving a Corvette and bus.”

He added, “It’s not as maneuverable as a fighter but it’s well suited for its mission.”

Killian said that two or three generations of pilots have flown the plane since its introduction in 1955. He said his great uncle had been a B-52 pilot and recently offered him some valuable tips about the plane.