Gallery: The 2014 Air Combat Command Heritage Flight Training Conference – Warbirds Up Close!


Gallery: The 2014 Air Combat Command Heritage Flight Training Conference – Warbirds Up Close!

(Photos by Joe Haber) – BangShifter Joe Haber serves in the United States Air Force as a Unit Deployment Manager and he is stationed at the Davis-Monthan base in Arizona. Luckily for us, Haber is a hot rodder, gearhead, and longtime BangShifter who sent us a note in late February and basically said, “Hey, there’s a bunch of ultra-bitchin’ planes headed here for some big meeting….want me to take some pictures?” We responded immediately that we sure were interested in him zapping some photos and sharing with us the coolness that was the 2014 Air Combat Command Heritage Flight Training Conference. Our understanding of this meeting is that it gives pilots a chance to meet, practice, and prepare for the upcoming air show season that will be going on in force all over the country this Spring, Summer, and Fall.

The fact is that war planes are like the ultimate hot rods. The lives and safety of many people depend on these planes to be faster, more agile, more advanced, and more weaponized than the planes that the other guys have. The machines you will see in this gallery were (and in some cases are) at the top of the food chain for warplanes during their respective eras, some which lasted longer than others. Being the knuckle dragging guys that we are, the propellor planes with the huge radial engines in the front of them are natural favorites. The way they sound both on the ground and in the air is something else and the fact that the entire vehicle was essentially built around the motor really makes it all that much better.

Things to pay attention to in this gallery and one of the reasons it was great to have a gearhead shoot it is that Joe totally gets it. There’s some awesome nose art, engine photos, and all the cool details that BangShifters will love. Big thanks to Joe Haber for sending this collection of photos and sorry it took us so long to get them published!

HIT THE LINK BELOW TO SEE THIS GALLERY OF BITCHIN’ PHOTOS FROM JOE HABER AT THE The 2014 Air Combat Command Heritage Flight Training Conference!

GALLERY:

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9 thoughts on “Gallery: The 2014 Air Combat Command Heritage Flight Training Conference – Warbirds Up Close!

  1. JOE HABER

    Great write up Brian. Thanks for using the pictures. The exact ammount of money involved with owning one of these planes is unknow to me but I can tell you its A LOT! A few years back a guy from Texas spun a bearing on his Merlin motor and they tried to fix it in the hangar I was working in. The NEW ENGINE was going to take too long to arrive so the owner went for his crew. A few days later a big Freightliner rolls in with a flatbed trailer and 2 other large box trucks in tow. A large crew of men jump out and start tearing down the plane and loaded it on the flat bed. within 2 days it was gone. I know that wasnt cheap. I am an engine guy by trade and for the last 20 years I’ve maintained the props and engines on C-130’s. These planes arent as interesting to me as the propulsion systems. I tried in erenst to get a few guys top open cowls so I could get engine pics to no avail.

  2. John Petersen

    Real airplanes have round engines. Rolls Merlins are cool but there is nothing ever gonna top a big ass Pratt & Whitney R2800 radial. The startup procedure alone makes top fuel look weak.

  3. Caveman Tony

    IIRC, that yellow-striped early jet is the same one that some retired colonel BELLY landed on the runway a half-dozen years back.

    When asked the obvious question.. “What happened?” he answered something to the effect of…

    “I’m a dumbass. I f’n forgot to lower the landing gear.”

    Except I think he was quoted as using quite a bit more foul language than that.

  4. 440 6Pac

    Loved the pictures and thanks Joe for sending them in. Also appreciate your service to our country.
    Everyone seems to love the P51. They are nice planes but if I could afford a WW ll plane I’d get me a P38. They’re way cooler than the P51.

  5. ls7gto

    Great shots like always! Im a Supermarine Spitfire lover , and as great as the RR Merlin is Make mine a Griffon ! That big 5 blade prop chewing air, its 12 cyls making 2420hp, coming down on the deck sounds incredible !

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