#F-35 Demo

[nocternalrandomness]

F-35 Demo practice at Davis-Monthan AFB

[indynerdgirl]

For the first time ever, three of the four Air Combat Command single-ship demonstration teams are piloted by women! 🤙🏻

Captain Lindsay M. "MAD" Johnson - Captain Lindsay Johnson is the A-10C Thunderbolt II Demonstration Team Pilot and Commander, DavisMonthan AFB, Arizona. She is responsible for showcasing the A-10 Thunderbolt II at over 20 airshows annually around the country, as well as internationally. She is also responsible for leadership of a 10-person team that includes maintenance and public affairs Airmen. She and the team highlight the capabilities of the A-10, as well as pay tribute to Air Force history by flying formation flights with the Heritage Flight Foundation.

Captain Aimee "Rebel" Fiedler - Captain Aimee Fiedler is the United States Air Force F-16 Viper Demonstration Team commander and pilot stationed at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, S.C. As the Viper Demo Team commander, she is responsible for representing Air Combat Command, the United States Air Force, the Department of Defense and the United States of America at more than 20 air shows annually. (you can follow her on Instagram @rebelfiedler16)

Major Kristen "Beo" Wolfe - Major Kristin Wolfe is the Commander, F-35A Lightning II Demonstration Team, 388th Fighter Wing, Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The mission of the F-35A Lightning II Demonstration team is to showcase the unique aerial capabilities of the Air Force’s most advanced 5th generation multi-role stealth fighter, the F-35A Lightning II, as well as highlight the history of the Air Force’s service through heritage formation flights. Additionally, she provides operational oversight and direction for the 13-personnel team, to include maintenance, aircrew flight equipment, and public affairs Airmen. (you can follow her on Instagram @beo_f35demo_pilot)

And also a shout-out to the female pilots in the US Air Force Thunderbirds and the US Navy Blue Angels!

Major Lauren “Threat” Schlichting - Major Lauren Schlichting is the Slot Pilot for the U.S. Air Force Demonstration Squadron, flying the No. 4 jet. She earned her commission in 2012 from the University of St. Thomas Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps program where she majored in Mathematics and played lacrosse. Before joining the Thunderbirds, she was an evaluating pilot and executive officer for the 333rd Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. She enjoys hockey, snowboarding, and surviving the Great White North. She has logged more than 2,000 flight hours in the F-15E, F-16, T-38, and T-6 with 420 combat hours. She is in her second season with the team and hails from Stillwater, MN. (you can follow her on Instagram @afthunderbird4)

Lieutenant Amanda "Stalin" Lee- Lieutenant Amanda Lee is the Left Wing pilot for the United States Navy Blue Angles, flying the No. 3 jet. She is a native of Mounds View, MN and she graduated from Irondale High School in 2004, where she competed in soccer, ice hockey and swimming. While attending the University of Minnesota Duluth, Amanda enlisted in the U.S. Navy as an Aviation Electronics Technician (AT) and reported to her first command, VFA-136 "Knighthawks." She was selected to commission as a Pilot through the Seaman-to-Admiral (STA-21) commissioning program in 2009. The following year, Lee attended the Naval Science Institute (NSI) for officer training in Newport, Rhode Island, and simultaneously began her studies at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where she received a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry.

Amanda joined the Blue Angels in September 2022, becoming the first woman to fly in a demo F/A-18E/F Super Hornet with the team. She has accumulated more than 1,400 flight hours and over 225 carrier-arrested landings. Her decorations include four Navy Achievement medals and various personal and unit awards.

[opelman]

Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II by David G. Schultz Via Flickr: Major Kristin "Beo" Wolfe

[thepathwechooseif]

DEMO TBA

In the English countryside in 1914, you live with your two children on your late husband’s grand estate. Two years have passed since the tragic sinking of the Titanic, from which you became a single parent.

Though surrounded by wealth and community, you remain lost in a fog of grief. But with the arrival of summer, the neighbouring family prepares to host their annual month-long house party. Your curious children persuade you to attend, hoping the festivities will lift your sorrow.

Lucas/Lucia Bertham, the family's charming heir, bonds with your children and seems to understand you in a way others cannot. But will secrets regarding their family's future prevent love?

Azra Hays arrives, a traveling storyteller with a gift for magic in their words that soothes your soul. Gardner Isaac Hill has loved you in silence, finding joy through your children's smiles.

More suitors await too - brilliant sculptor Zephyr Langston, whose art mirrors your heart, and Doctor Henry Bellman, who ministers to the people with patience and good humor.

As festivities crescendo with masques, fireworks and more, you start to believe in love and laughter again. But which person holds your whole heart? And will dark forces from the past destroy this new paradise you’ve begun to build?

The summer promises intrigue, blessings, and maybe a sweet romance if you can let go of history and embrace the gifts of tomorrow.

Customise your character as well as your children’s

Choose where you live and how you dress

Your choices have an impact on how society reacts to you!

Uncover secrets from your past!

Pursuing different ROs with varying levels of affection leads to unique story endings that resolve the mystery

Lucas/Lucia Bertham (m/f/nb)

The Heir, 26, Lucas/Lucia Bertham is the only child and heir to the prestigious title and lands of Bertham. They are a successful businessperson, but relish returning to their ancestral home each summer. While other young people prefer to travel abroad, they prefer the simple pleasures of country life. They take their duty as head of the manor seriously, helping tenants with an approachable demeanor. Though destined to marry well for station one day, they remain single and enjoy lively flirtations. While others dance at balls, they are the happiest hosting gatherings under the stars or riding alongside farm laborers by day. Lucas/Lucia lights up any room with their charm, wit and easy smiles. But is there a lonely heart searching for more beneath this carefree facade? As always, only time will tell what develops between Lucas/Lucia and you over the magical summer months at Bertham.

Isaac Hill(m)

The Gardner, 35, Isaac Hill has lived and worked on your estate for years. His strong, weather-worn hands coax beauty from the soil. Gardenings comes naturally to gentle-souled Isaac, as does his way with any creature in need of care. The expansive gardens are his pride and joy, a wonderland open for all to enjoy. Despite his huge build, muscular arms and calloused palms, his demeanor remains soft-spoken yet self-assured. While most village maidens sigh for officers or heirs, Isaac's gentle soul and way with children has turned many a head. But he remains devoted to coaxing new life from the earth, finding solace in small things. Perhaps amid the Bertham's blossoms, Isaac's own heart may bud anew this summer as well.

Zephyr Langston(m/f/nb)

The Sculptor, 27, Zephyr Langston hails from one of London's most prestigious arts families. Though young, their sculptures have already gained fame across England. While many London soirees vie for their presence, Zephyr relishes escaping to the countryside each summer. Using moody landscapes as inspiration, they work tirelessly to capture fleeting emotions in stone. Some say their sculptures are too sensually lifelike, but the Berthams proudly collect their edgy works. Zephyr charms salon attendees but remains unmarried, focused solely on their "passionate mistress," their art. Though prone to brooding moody spells while working, they come alive at parties with a playful wit. Could this summer be when they find inspiration of the heart as well as hands among the Bertham estate's rolling hills?

Henry Bellman(m)

The Doctor, 29, though young, he runs the village medical practice with a maturity beyond his years. What he lacks in words, Henry more than makes up for with his compassionate bedside manner. He listens with steady brown eyes that seem to see into patients' very souls. While others chat idly, Henry prefers observing life unfold with subtle calm. An avid reader, he's as learned as any university man but without pretense. More than one farmer's daughter has blushed starry-eyed receiving his attentions, yet he remains a bachelor focused solely on his work. The Berthams value Lucas greatly for his discretion and healing touch. But does his solemn façade hide deeper passions waiting to emerge? As always, only time will tell what mysteries lie beneath the calm exterior of Doctor Henry Bellman, and what intrigues he may stir in your heart this season.

Azra Hays(m/f/nb)

The Storyteller, 27, Azra Hays is a free spirit , with mischievous eyes like the summer sky. While others settle, Azra is happiest wandering the countryside in their worn boots, flute in hand.They’re a jack of all trades but lives for their art - spinning spellbinding tales that transport listeners far from their daily toils. With their easy smile and flirty manner, Azra charms all they meet. Yet beneath this bohemian exterior beats a kind and generous heart, always helping travelers in need. An orphan from youth, they never take their freedom or talents for granted. Azra makes their coin sharing folklore, gossip and bawdy jokes in villages along their route. But they save their most magical stories for moonlit campfires, weaving magic that leaves audiences in awe. Some say their nose for intrigue could even rival the Sherlock Holmes tales. Will Azra linger longer this year among Bertham's gardens and party revelries? Is there feeling breeding beyond friendship beneath Azra's roguish charm? As always, only time will tell the true depth of bonds woven beneath the summer stars.

[hogans-heroes]

Hi 😊 I was wondering if you had any headcanons about modern AU Buck and Bucky as pilots. What if they met at an air show? 😉 How would that go? What are they like?

Fam I love this concept so much but I STRUGGLED with this one! Mainly because I want to make Bucky a stunt pilot SOOO bad because he has exactly the personality to be doing insane stunts in something like an Extra 300 but those cockpits are TINY and really tall people don’t do well with aerobatics/G-forces without a g-suit so that’s not gonna work 😭

But that’s ok because I like my second idea even better: Bucky is on the Air Force F-35 Demo team and Gale is a ferry pilot who owns a Waco he flies for fun to shows around the country:

This is soooo perfect for them individually! F-35 pilots are the cream of the crop, absolute jet-jockeys and I’m really leaning into Top Gun AU territory which I loooove. Bucky is a larger than life personality with a callsign like Rambo or something and is known for being an excellent pilot and leader. He loves doing the craziest and hardest stunts for crowds at air shows all over the country and LIVES for the excitement and drama.

Gale enjoys the much more relaxed and nostalgic flying. The job ferry pilot is moving aircraft around the country for people who have bought or sold or just planes that need to be moved for whatever reason. It’s interesting and fun and Gale loves seeing the country. But his pride and joy is the Waco biplane he owns that is in pristine condition. He loves the open cockpit and feeling the wind and seeing the beautiful views at a slow pace. He flies it to air shows around the country and camps in the grass with his plane along with others doing the same thing.

At one of these shows he runs into Bucky and some after-show event, maybe one of his employers gets him invited. The F-35 pilots are there and of course no one can miss Bucky’s presence. When they are introduced they hit it off and get to talking, and of course Gale is smitten but tries to hide it. Isn’t everyone smitten with these hot-shots? Why would Bucky be interested? But when he shows Bucky photos of his Waco Bucky is OBSESSED and begs to see it. It’s already dark so it’s easy to sneak out of the event tent and out to Gale’s plane. Bucky listens as Gale talks about his baby and is slowly melting in the face of his sweetness. They end up talking into the night and sitting on the grass under the wing to watch the night airshow and fireworks. (They might kiss, just maybe).

So what of it if Gale just so happens to show up at the events where Bucky is scheduled to perform? And so what if Bucky disappears to Wyoming on his time off? Pure coincidence. The first time Bucky gets a ride in the Waco he thought his heart would burst. It’s so beautiful and fun and Gale’s happy voice in his headset makes him want this forever.

[usafphantom2]

The Fab Four of Heritage Flight hit the skies in the first ever all-female, four-ship flyover. Led by Kellie Hudson, the demo featured Capt. "MAD" Johnson, Capt. "MACH" Kluesner, former F-35 Demo Commander "BEO" Wolfe, and former Viper Demo Commander "REBEL" Fiedler. #IWD2024

@AFHFlight via X

[jjwphotography1990]

Beo bringing the vapor for her last show as the F-35 demo team pilot!

.

The 2023 Orlando Air Show

Orlando, Florida

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#vapor #vaporcone #f35 #f35lightning #f35lightningii #jet #fighterjet #aviationphotography #airforce #airshow #airshowphotography #aviation #aviationgeek #airplane #military #shotoncanon #canon #canoneosr #eosr #canonphotography #photography #aviationphoto #pictureoftheday #planespotting #sigma #sigmalens #sigma60600mmsports #mylensrental #orlandoairshow #airdotshow

[thatsrightice]

From your reply to my ask:

Whomst has summoned the avgeek—

I don’t want you to cry, but favorite commercial and military aircraft?

Also: I am in complete agreement—Ice fighting off FIVE MiGs was so cool, badass and hot.

Okokokokokok I needed a sec to run around and scream but I’m ok

Airplanes are amazing and I love them. Every time I see one or am on one I literally can’t stop smiling. Its impossible not to.

Let’s start commercial; so my favorite is a bit more private than commercial but I have a soft spot for Gulfstream because I may or may not work there. You can call me biased, but with windows that are EVENLY spread so each seat has a perfect window view not to mention the INSANELY HUGE windows, it’s hard not to love. I specifically enjoy the G650 model for more biased reasons.

Like come on! I always get window seats flying commercial but half the time the windows are like out of reach or basically behind me so these windows are incredibly cool to me. Did I mention they’re 28” wide? Insane.

———

Favorite military plane is a LOT harder but I do love the F-22 Raptor. When I saw the F-22 twilight demo at EAA for the first time I immediately fell in love with it. It was the first airplane I genuinely held above the rest. I had always loved aviation but it made me fall in love all over again, nothing compares to hearing the crackle of the afterburner as it streaks across the sky I get goosebumps every time. Genuinely an amazing aircraft, one of the best if not the best ever produced. Here, have this pic I took after a pilot flew a demo and no he’s not flipping off the camera I promise :)

F-14 Tomcat is always up there for sure. I love reading stories and listening to podcast episodes from the people who flew them. A big part of my interest in them, beside the movie Top Gun, is the shear amount of ISSUES they had! Like literal death traps at times 💀💀💀 To put it crudely (and probably incorrectly just know there’s some truth to it), you couldn’t change your airspeed while doing maneuvers without the compressor stalling, the hydraulic issues, the TF-30 engine throwing fan blades that would literally tear apart the engine to pieces, did I mention the extremely common compressor stall?, the occasional flap slat disconnect issues, I could go on forever. It’s such a humbling aspect of the jet that not many people know about. The fact that it’s a two-seater is also so cool cause it’s becoming less common in newer aircraft (I’m looking at you F-35).

[jubojan]

The air show was a blast.

Here's a vid of a B-52 Stratofortress flying by. Obsessed with BUFF.

Few pics of other military aircraft performing there also.

The F-35 Demo Team were the loudest and most badass thing I've ever seen.

[nocternalrandomness]

Fat Amy wowing the crowd at Luke Days 2024

[indynerdgirl]

2024 DEMO TEAMS' SCHEDULES HAVE DROPPED!

[hirocimacruiser]

Let's go to Roppongi!

★ Y32 Cima

Yasushi Sumita OWNER

20-year old

Sumita-kun's Cima, which is also a demo car at a shop called E Company, shows a high-level finish that adds processing to the insurance aero. It boasts an overfender called “Sakae Nispecial”, which is not too flashy, and accents the foot well. For future plans, he is thinking about candy painting and audio.

The owner Sumita (right) and his friend (I forgot to ask his name, sorry).

DRESS UP DATA

-Exterior: Insurance Front Modified, Side Modified, Rear Modified, Wing Modified/Over Fender (Eiji Special) Body Color: Navy Blue Suspension: Konig (18 inch) / (F: 235/40 R: 275/35) Muffler: Clayton Cost: 2.5 million yen

PIC CAPTIONS

Not only the rear, but also the sides and front match the over fenders and are processing.

The overfender called “Ei Ni Special” is an original part of “E Company”.

[187days]

Day Forty-Two

Today was a day full of assessments, which meant it was also a day full of grading. Luckily, I’m a wizard, and grade tests and quizzes absurdly quickly, so I was still out of the building by 3:00PM this afternoon.

My GOV students had a test in the style of the AP Exam (just smaller: 35 multiple choice, 4 FRQs), and they were noticeably better at taking a test under time pressure. They didn’t let themselves get stuck. Most of them also figured out how to study more effectively for this kind of test, and especially how to be ready to write the FRQs; some of them are going to need to come and see me to get some help with that before doing a retake, but that’s alright. There’s still a lot of time for improvement, no one’s grade has been irreparably harmed. I know it can be difficult for high-achieving students to ask for help- it was for me when I was a teenager- so I’ll have to be persistent in encouraging it. 

My World students had a quiz on unit content. It was open notes, and students had the questions ahead of time (they’re on the guide I hand out at the start of each unit), so a lot of them assumed they’d be able to ace it without any preparation. Meantime, I’d suggested that they should organize their notes ahead of time to make sure they knew where to find the answers. It was very obvious, when I did the grading, who took that advice and who didn’t.

A couple of them got really stressed out because they knew they were unprepared and were not going to earn good grades. I talked one down from blowing up at me by reminding him that I allow retakes, and that I also don’t weight any one thing high enough to torpedo someone’s average. I swear, sometimes kids think getting a C on a quiz will take an As to an F. I’ve often had to show them how grading calculations actually work to ease the anxiety. 

After doing that, though, we went on with class, and it went really well. 

Mr. W’s coming in to do our annual karate demo tomorrow, so my students and I read an article about the history of the particular style of karate he’s trained in. Since it’s information I have to know to test for my next belt, I told them they could quiz me, and they had a lot of fun with that (I got one question wrong in each section, heh). Lastly, I went over the expectations and rules for tomorrow, and fielded questions. My students seem skeptical about the fact that I’m going to get hit for real when Mr. W and I spar. Guess they’ll see!

[lakelandg]

5 PM – Miss America, USAF Lt. Marsh

HIGHLIGHTS TODAY! 5 PM – Miss America, USAF Lt. Marsh THE HANGAR –10 AM – Dagger Athena – the Women of Air Force Special Operations Command11 AM – Capt. Melanie “MACH” Kluesner & F-35 Demo Team5 PM – Miss America, USAF Lt. Marsh6 PM – Air Legends Foundations & C-121A “Bataan” – Rod Lewis, Steve Hinton, Stewart Dawson, & Jeff Whitsell9:30 PM – Patty Wagstaff9:45 PM – “Fly Like a Girl” (2019)The…

[toshootforthestars]

Posted 25 Nov 2023:

Since 2016, policy makers, scholars, and journalists have been scrambling to answer those questions as they seek to make sense of the rise of Donald Trump—who declared, in 2015, “The American dream is dead”—and the seething discontent in American life. Three main theories have emerged, each with its own account of how we got here and what it might take to change course. One theory holds that the story is fundamentally about the white backlash to civil-rights legislation. Another pins more blame on the Democratic Party’s cultural elitism. And the third focuses on the role of global crises beyond any political party’s control. Each theory is incomplete on its own. Taken together, they go a long way toward making sense of the political and economic uncertainty we’re living through. “The American landscape was once graced with resplendent public swimming pools, some big enough to hold thousands of swimmers at a time,” writes Heather McGee, the former president of the think tank Demos, in her 2021 book, The Sum of Us. In many places, however, the pools were also whites-only. Then came desegregation. Rather than open up the pools to their Black neighbors, white communities decided to simply close them for everyone. For McGhee, that is a microcosm of the changes to America’s political economy over the past half century: White Americans were willing to make their own lives materially worse rather than share public goods with Black Americans.

From the 1930s until the late ’60s, Democrats dominated national politics. They used their power to pass sweeping progressive legislation that transformed the American economy. But their coalition, which included southern Dixiecrats as well as northern liberals, fractured after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Richard Nixon’s “southern strategy” exploited that rift and changed the electoral map. Since then, no Democratic presidential candidate has won a majority of the white vote. Crucially, the civil-rights revolution also changed white Americans’ economic attitudes. In 1956, 65% of white people said they believed the government ought to guarantee a job to anyone who wanted one and to provide a minimum standard of living. By 1964, that number had sunk to 35%. Ronald Reagan eventually channeled that backlash into a free-market message by casting high taxes and generous social programs as funneling money from hardworking (white) Americans to undeserving (Black) “welfare queens.” In this telling, which has become popular on the left, Democrats are the tragic heroes. The mid-century economy was built on racial suppression and torn apart by racial progress. Economic inequality was the price liberals paid to do what was right on race. The New York Times writer David Leonhardt is less inclined to let liberals off the hook. His new book, Ours Was the Shining Future, contends that the fracturing of the New Deal coalition was about more than race. Through the ’50s, the left was rooted in a broad working-class movement focused on material interests. But at the turn of the ’60s, a New Left emerged that was dominated by well-off college students. These activists were less concerned with economic demands than issues like nuclear disarmament, women’s rights, and the war in Vietnam. Their methods were not those of institutional politics but civil disobedience and protest. The rise of the New Left, Leonhardt argues, accelerated the exodus of white working-class voters from the Democratic coalition. Robert F. Kennedy emerges as an unlikely hero in this telling. Although Kennedy was a committed supporter of civil rights, he recognized that Democrats were alienating their working-class base. As a primary candidate in 1968, he emphasized the need to restore “law and order” and took shots at the New Left, opposing draft exemptions for college students. As a result of these and other centrist stances, Kennedy was criticized by the liberal press—even as he won key primary victories on the strength of his support from both white and Black working-class voters.

But Kennedy was assassinated in June that year, and the political path he represented died with him. That November, Nixon, a Republican, narrowly won the White House. In the process, he reached the same conclusion that Kennedy had: The Democrats had lost touch with the working class, leaving millions of voters up for grabs. In the 1972 election, Nixon portrayed his opponent, George McGovern, as the candidate of the “three A’s”—acid, abortion, and amnesty (the latter referring to draft dodgers). He went after Democrats for being soft on crime and unpatriotic. On Election Day, he won the largest landslide since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. For Leonhardt, that was the moment when the New Deal coalition shattered. From then on, as the Democratic Party continued to reflect the views of college graduates and professionals, it would lose more and more working-class voters.

McGhee’s and Leonhardt’s accounts might appear to be in tension, echoing the “race versus class” debate that followed Trump’s victory in 2016. In fact, they’re complementary. As the economist Thomas Piketty has shown, since the’60s, left-leaning parties in most Western countries, not just the U.S., have become dominated by college-educated voters and lost working-class support. But nowhere in Europe was the backlash quite as immediate and intense as it was in the U.S. A major difference, of course, is the country’s unique racial history. The 1972 election might have fractured the Democratic coalition, but that still doesn’t explain the rise of free-market conservatism. The new Republican majority did not arrive with a radical economic agenda. Nixon combined social conservatism with a version of New Deal economics. His administration increased funding for Social Security and food stamps, raised the capital-gains tax, and created the Environmental Protection Agency. Meanwhile, laissez-faire economics remained unpopular. Polls from the ’70s found that most Republicans believed that taxes and benefits should remain at present levels, and anti-tax ballot initiatives failed in several states by wide margins. Even Reagan largely avoided talking about tax cuts during his failed 1976 presidential campaign. The story of America’s economic pivot still has a missing piece.

According to the economic historian Gary Gerstle’s 2022 book, The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order, that piece is the severe economic crisis of the mid-’70s. The 1973 Arab oil embargo sent inflation spiraling out of control. Not long afterward, the economy plunged into recession. Median family income was significantly lower in 1979 than it had been at the beginning of the decade, adjusting for inflation. “These changing economic circumstances, coming on the heels of the divisions over race and Vietnam, broke apart the New Deal order,” Gerstle writes. (Leonhardt also discusses the economic shocks of the ’70s, but they play a less central role in his analysis.) Free-market ideas had been circulating among a small cadre of academics and business leaders for decades—most notably the University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman. The ’70s crisis provided a perfect opening to translate them into public policy, and Reagan was the perfect messenger. “Government is not the solution to our problem,” he declared in his 1981 inaugural address. “Government is the problem.” Part of Reagan’s genius was that the message meant different things to different constituencies. For southern whites, government was forcing school desegregation. For the religious right, government was licensing abortion and preventing prayer in schools. And for working-class voters who bought Reagan’s pitch, a bloated federal government was behind their plummeting economic fortunes. At the same time, Reagan’s message tapped into genuine shortcomings with the economic status quo. The Johnson administration’s heavy spending had helped ignite inflation, and Nixon’s attempt at price controls had failed to quell it.

The generous contracts won by auto unions (Me: actually the crap-ass unreliable gas guzzling lead sleds being sold by the Big Three did them in, but whatever) made it hard for American manufacturers to compete with nonunionized Japanese ones. After a decade of pain, most Americans now favored cutting taxes. The public was ready for something different. They got it. The top marginal income-tax rate was 70% when Reagan took office and 28% when he left. Union membership shriveled. Deregulation led to an explosion of the financial sector, and Reagan’s Supreme Court appointments set the stage for decades of consequential pro-business rulings. None of this, Gerstle argues, was preordained. The political tumult of the ’60s helped crack the Democrats’ electoral coalition, but it took the unusual confluence of a major economic crisis and a talented political communicator to create a new consensus. By the ’90s, Democrats had accommodated themselves to the core tenets of the Reagan revolution. President Bill Clinton further deregulated the financial sector, pushed through the North American Free Trade Agreement, and signed a bill designed to “end welfare as we know it.” Echoing Reagan, in his 1996 State of the Union address, Clinton conceded: “The era of big government is over.”

[usafphantom2]

End Of An Era: A-10C Thunderbolt II Demo Team Announces Final Airshow Season

The A-10 Demo Team has just announced their farewell tour 2024.

David Cenciotti

A-10 Demo Team Farewell Tour 2024

The U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II demonstration team is the unit in charge of highlighting the A-10C’s capabilities during airshows across the United States and to recruit, retain and inspire the next generation of Airmen. The team will perform its duty for one last season this year: in fact, as announced on social media, 2024 is going to mark the final airshow season for the Warthog demo.

The farewell tour does not come unexpected though: last month, the 355th Wing at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, where the Demo team is based, begun divesting its fleet of A-10 aircraft after nearly 50 years.

The first model of the aircraft to arrive at Davis-Monthan was an A-10A on March 2, 1976. This model was assigned to the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing that arrived here in 1971 and replaced the Vought A-7D Corsair flown by the 355th TFW. The 355th TFW was later reclassified as the 355th Tactical Fighter Training Wing, prompting the 354th, 357th, and 358th Fighter squadrons to train U.S. Air Force Pilots on the A-10A aircraft.

A-10 Demo Team

The heritage paint scheme of the A-10C Demo Team, introduced for 2023 season.

The U.S. Air Force has plans to divest the entire fleet of A-10 aircraft within the next 3-5 years, when the iconic jet will be replaced by the F-35.

“The A-10 has been the symbol of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for many years, and it will continue to be a symbol for the Airmen of DM, a symbol of their commitment, excellence and service,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Scott Mills, 355th Wing commander and A-10 pilot in a public statement. “For now, we’re divesting a single squadron during the summer-fall timeframe of 2024.”

Coinciding with the divestment, Davis-Monthan plans to expand its Rescue Footprint, which may lead to additional utility of the HC-130 aircraft and the HH-60W helicopter. Airframes expected to arrive from the Air Force Special Operations Command include the MC-130 and OA-1K.

A-10 Demo pilot

Capt Lindsay “MAD” Johnson, Demo Team Commander, poses in front of her aircraft.

“From an Ops personnel standpoint, this divestment arguably allows a more expeditious stand-up of the F-35, even as that program continues to struggle with a variety of delays,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Razvan Radoescu, 355th Operations Group commander.

The aircraft 82-648 was the first to be retired from service at Davis-Monthan on Feb. 6, 2024, and transited from the 354th Fighter Squadron to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group for final maintenance procedures and display preparation for the Davis-Monthan where hundreds of retired Aircraft are stored.

“There will always be a job for maintainers; it may not be on the A-10, but the Air Force needs maintainers to sustain airpower,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Clarence McRae, 355th Maintenance Group commander, “Perhaps the biggest draw of future maintainers will be in the F-35 community. Airplanes are still going to break, and we are still going to fix them.”

One of the memes that you could find online during the early days of the Ukrainian invasion by Russia.

Anyway, there’s still time to attend an airshow and watch the A-10 Demo Team, commanded by Capt Johnson, an Instructor Pilot and Flight Commander assigned to the 357th Fighter Squadron, Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona and previously served also in Texas and Korea, at her second season as the commander of the team.

Here’s the schedule.

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

@Aviationist via X