Rod's WarBirds
AirExpo 2000 Air Show - July 2000
The Air Expo 2000 Air Show was held at Flying Cloud Airport on July 22-23. This air show
was part of the Minneapolis Aquatennial Celebration (a 10-day local festival). There were
not a lot of warbirds present - just a B-25 from CAF and 4 P-51s from the local area. However,
there were a lot of good seminars from WWII pilots from the Black Sheep, Dolittle Raiders,
AVG, and the Battle of Britain (both sides). At least, it gave me a chance to try out my new 500
mm zoom lens before the good air show in 2 weeks at Fleming Field in St. Paul. On August 5,
there will be a B-17, B-24, B-25, P-40, P-38, P-51s, and some other aircraft. The Air Expo 2000,
however, was not too bad as you can see from the following pictures.
North American B-25 Mitchell
The Minnesota Wing B-25 "Miss Mitchell" was on static display and did not fly until the end of the
show. However, they did allow
considerable access to the aircraft, and I got some good bomb bay photos.
AT-6 and Harvard
There were 2 AT-6 Aircraft & 1 Harvard at the show.
BT-13
There was 1 BT-13 at the show. This is the aircraft commonly used to make Japanese Vals
Hughes 500 (Modified Lodestar)
The Hughes 500 is an impressive aircraft. Take a Lodestar, put on 4-blade props and 2,000 hp engines, and pressurize the cabin and what do you have?
A very impressive executive aircraft.
D-18 Twin Beechcraft
And, of course, one of the most durable of small twin-engine aircraft - the venerable D-18 Beechcraft.
North American P-51 Mustang
And, Last but not least, the P-51s. Please note the rare opportunity to see the wing gun bay open. I purposely scanned a picture
with higher
resolution so you can read the notations on the gun bay lid.
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