2014 Rhode Island Air Show

2014 Rhode Island Air Show

The Blue Angels brought the only air show to the New England region after a year hiatus thanks to the Government. Rhode Island’s Quonset State Airport grabbed the Blue Angels when May 17-18th opened up after Cherry Point canceled their air show.

With Quonset being an old Navy air base the US Navy’s Blue Angels is a crowd favorite and was sure to attract thousands. Mother Nature yet again tried to throw a wet damper on this show where all week long it was calling for showers all weekend. Thankfully the showers ended by 7:15am and the clouds were pulling away by 11am.

This year’s show not only brought in the Blue Angels, but the USAF was represented by the F-22 Raptor demo and the US Marines were sure to please the crowd with the MV-22 Osprey Demo. The other military single ship demo’s haven’t stepped up yet, hopefully next year we’ll see the F-16 and F-18 Demo’s up and running again.

For civilian acts we had Sean D Tucker in his Oracle Bi-plane, John Klatt not only in his Air National Guard S-330, but also deputed his “Screamin’ Sasquatch”. His Jack Link’s Jet powered Waco was awesome. An act you really have to hear just as much as see. To hear a jet engine come off a bi-plane just didn’t sound right. Local Rob Holland stunned the crowd in his Cox stunt plane.

The Collins Foundation brought their A-1E Skyraider to open the show, a P-51D, the Geico Skytypers along with Julie Clark took their performances to the skies. A new act for me was seeing The Horsemen’s F8F Bearcat and the F7F Tigercat, 2 Vintage Navy fighters. Due to the storm that came up Friday, the Horsemen didn’t arrive till late morning on Sat but took to the air in the afternoon.

The Blue Angels as always were the closing act, Fat Albert starting their show in their C-130 and then the Blues taking to the Blue Skies. There was no Combined Arms, C-130J or UH-60 Demo’s from the home RI Units this year which was a disappointment. I’d like to thank the RI Air Nation Guard for their 23rd annual air show and looking forward to next year’s on Memorial Day.